


r « J 






^..^1 



r-\ T^«N 



^^ 




Class i3_^/i?^ 
Book - ^ T 

(aSTERIGHT DEPOSm 



RIVERSIDE TEXTBOOKS 
IN EDUCATION 

EDITED BY ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 
LBLAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY 



DIVISION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

UNDER THE EDITORIAL DIRECTION 

OF ALEXANDER INGLIS 



FROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



=-rJlll..llllllll.llllllU.llillllMlllLHlllllllMlllll lllll..lllllll.lllllllll.lllllll.lllllllllllllllllMllllllllllllllll..llllll lIllll.lllllllMliyi llllll|.|lllllll.llllllllllllL= 



PUBLIC SCHOOL 
ADMINISTRATION 

A STATEMENT OF THE FUNDAMENTAL 

PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING THE ORGANIZATION 

AND ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC 

EDUCATION 



BY 



ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 

LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR 

UNIVERSITY 




HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO 



=-=|||l>M||||||ll||||||llin|nn>M||||||ll|||||||U|||||J|M|||||||IM||||||MM||| r|||MIHI||||l"l|||||l<M||jtMII|||||MM|||||||ll|||||||il|||||||ll|||||||M|||||||ll|||||||ll|||j|| jp-= 

liiiiililiiiiiilltiiHiilllhiiiHlliiiiiilllhiiullliiiiiillliiiiiillluiiiillliiiiiilllMMiillluiiiitlluiiii^ 



Revised Edition 



o5 



COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY 

COPYRIGHT, I916, BY ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



2 ^o 



fS>1^t IKittetsitUe l^resos 

CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 



APR 28 1922 
§)CU661457 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

An attempt has been made, in the space of this book, 
to state the fundamental principles underlying the proper 
organization and administration of public education in the 
United States; to state briefly the historical evolution of 
the principal administrative oflScers and problems; and to 
point out what seem to be the most probable lines of future 
evolution. 

To do this, and to make a satisfactory textbook on school 
administration in so short a space, naturally required much 
condensation and the employment of a number of econo- 
mies in presentation. In the body of the chapters these 
fundamental principles have been stated, often somewhat 
positively. At the same time an attempt has been made to 
base the statements on such well-established principles of 
action, tested by experience, and so to reinforce the pres- 
entation made in the body of the chapters by footnote 
extracts and suggestions as to supplemental reading, as will 
make the book a serviceable text for use in colleges and 
normal schools giving courses in educational administra- 
tion. It is also hoped that the volume may prove useful, 
as an organization of principles, to supervisory officers of 
all kinds in service in our schools. 

The book has naturally centered about the administra- 
tion of city school systems, simply because almost all of 
the great recent progress in organization, administration, 
supervision, and adaptation to needs has taken place there. 
By showing the origin and relationship of aU forms of 



vi EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

educational activity to the state purpose, as has been done 
in Part I, and by applying the results of the administra- 
tive experience of our cities to county and state educa- 
tional organization and administration, as has been done in 
Part III, the author has tried to present, in one volume, 
the essential principles governing proper educational control 
for all types of public-school work, — city, county, and 
state. 

In making the statement of principles of action the au- 
thor has sought to avoid what seems to him to be the com- 
mon defect of most of the books on school administration 
so far produced, and that is such a nice balancing of argu- 
ments that the book is, practically colorless. He has also 
tried to avoid the production of a book of mere facts and 
figures. Such facts can be obtained without diflGiculty, and 
as needed from public-school documents. Instead, he has 
endeavored to make a book containing such a clear state- 
ment of fundamental principles that either the lay reader 
or the student, on finishing it, shall know what ought to 
be done, and why. To give a student ideals for his work, 
and to establish in his mind proper principles of action, has 
always seemed to the writer an essential part of any course 
on public-school administration. 

To make the book more useful to students in classes, a 
large nimiber of questions for discussion, and topics for 
investigation and report, have been added to each of the 
chapters. These will serve to give concreteness to the pres- 
entation, and will enable students and instructor to ques- 
tion and discuss the principles laid down in the text. In 
the footnote extracts, opinions by representative thinkers 
and practical workers have been given by way of backing 
up the arguments presented in the text. In the bibliogra- 
phies at the end of the chapters the author has shunned the 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION vii 

common practice of adding a large and imclassified list of 
references, good, bad, and indifferent, leaving the student 
to grope his way through them. Instead, a list of selected 
references has been given, and these have been classified 
as to content and value, and only the best of those most 
likely to be accessible in the smaller libraries have been 
cited. The aim has been to guide the student to a small 
number of easily accessible articles on each topic, written 
by those who have contributed most to its discussion. 

The administration of public education centers about 
the work of three persons. The first of these is the class- 
room teacher, in the conduct and management of a single 
school. The second is the school principal, in the organi- 
zation, administration, and supervision of a single build- 
ing, or perhaps a group of buildings. The third of these is 
the superintendent of schools, in the organization, admin- 
istration, and supervision of a group of schools. The prin- 
ciples imderlying the successful work of the first consti- 
tute what is commonly known as classroom management, 
on which a volume is now in preparation for this series. 
The second will be presented in another future volume on 
the Organization and Administration of a School. The third 
is covered by the present volume. It is hoped to offer soon 
still another volume, on the Supervision of Instruction, as 
another number of the administrative division of this 
series. 

As the author conceives a course in school administra- 
tion, it should include the work of both the school princi- 
pal and the superintendent, the course beginning with a 
study of the problems of organization, administration, and 
supervision as represented in the building unit, and being 
followed by a study of similar problems for the larger group. 
The present volume represents the second part of such a 



VIU 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 



course in school administration, and is in effect a digest of 
what he has for some years given at the university with 
which he is connected. Part 11 of this volume also covers 
the substance of a course of lectures on "City School Ad- 
ministration " given at Teachers College, Columbia Univer- 
sity, during the summer session of 1914. 

Ellwood p. Cubberley 



CONTENTS 

PART I. OUTLINES OF STATE EDUCATIONAL 
ORGANIZATION 

CHAPTER I. Origin and Development of Schools . . 3 

Early attitudes — Schools at first community undertakings — 
— The district unit — Evolution of district organization — 
Early district oflScers — Rise of state systems — Early state or- 
ganizations — The first school laws — The change in attitude — 
The present conviction — Questions for discussion. 

CHAPTER n. State Authorization and Control . . 14 

The State the unit — Court decisions — Delegated author- 
ity — The recovery of state sovereignty — Examples of such 
transference — Advantages of state control — Disadvantages of 
state control — The State's proper functions — A state educa- 
tional policy — Questions for investigation and discussion. 

CHAPTER m. State Educational Organization . . 27 

Evolution of forms of control — Chief state school oflBcer — 
The office an evolution — Duties of such an official — New de- 
mands for leadership — State boards of education — Types of 
state boards — Good state educational organization — The 
problem at hand — Questions for investigation and discussion. 

CHAPTER IV. County Educational Organization . . 35 

The county in school administration — Evolution of a county 
school officer — Early duties of the office — New and changed 
duties — New demand for educational leadership — County 
boards of control — The educational problem involved — Ques- 
tions for investigation and discussion. 

CHAPTER V. Town, Township, and District Organiza- 
tion 44 

County subdivisions for administration — The town — 
Marked features of the town system — The township — Disad- 
vantages of the township unit — The township unit not funda- 
mentally necessary — The school-district unit — Bad features 



X CONTENTS 

of the district unit — District system not necessary — A funda- 
mental reorganization needed — Questions for investigation and 
discussion. 

CHAPTER VI. The City School District 55 

The city district a special case — The city district an evolu- 
tion — Recent rapid growth of city school systems — Promi- 
nence of city administrative problems — The city's distinctive 
contribution — State vs. city control of the school district — Pro- 
tection instead of bureaucracy — Other problems of relation- 
ship — To study the city first — Questions for investigation and 
discussion — Selected references covering Part I. 



PART n. THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 
AND ITS PROBLEMS 

CHAPTER Vn. Evolution of City School Organization 
AND Administration 71 

The original town control — Subtracting powers from the 
towns — Rise of the school committee — Two centuries of evo- 
lution — Massachusetts a type — Types of development else- 
where — The separate school board — Development of the ward 
and committee systems — Evolution of professional supervision 

— Further differentiation of executive functions — Present con- 
ceptions as to school control — Selected references. 

CHAPTER Vni. Organization of Boards for School 
Control 85 

Special governing boards — Recent reorganizations — Tend- 
encies in recent reorganizations — Size of school boards — Basis 
of selection, wards vs. at large — Appointment vs. election — 
,Term of office, and elections — Pay for services — Origin of pay 
proposals — Commission form of government and the schools — 
Dependence on vs. independence of the city government — The 
ordinary citizen and the schools — Disadvantages of city control 

— Questions for discussion — Topics for investigation and re- 
port — Selected references. 

CHAPTER IX. Functions OF Boards FOR School Control 109 

The board as a body — Boards continuous and changing — 
Types of school-board members — The committee form of con- 
trol — Committee control applied to hospital management — 
Conunittee service time-consumiag — Committee action illus- 



CONTENTS xi 

trated — A confusion in functions — The real work of the board 
— Legislative and executive functions — Selection of executive 
officers — Bases for selection — Types of board members — Re- 
sults of faithful service — Questions for discussion — Topics for 
investigation and report — Selected references. 

lJHAPTER X. The Superintendent of Schools . . . 130 

A new profession — Importance of this official — Large duties 
of the office — Education and training — The years of appren- 
ticeship — Learning and working — Dangerous pitfalls — Per- 
sonal qualities necessary — The qualities of leadership — Ques- 
tions for discussion — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XI. Threefold Nature of the Superintend- 
ent's Work 143 

Three types of service — Time for the larger problems — Loss 
of balance and perspective. 

1. The superintendent as an organizer — A policy for develop- 
ment — Educating a board — Importance of such service. 

2. The superintendent as an^executive — Proper personal and 
official relations — Mutual trust and confidence — Appealing 
to the community — Relations with the community. 

3. The superintendent as supervisor — Dangers faced by the 
superintendent — Questions for discussion — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XII. City School Department Organization 160 

Size and distribution of cities — The small city school system — 
The comprehensive type of superintendent — Dangers of such a 
position — Organization in a small city — The place of the super- 
intendent in the scheme — Expansion as the city grows — Proper 
administrative organization for the larger city — Guaranteed 
powers — Educational organization in the large city — Central 
position of the educational department — Executive heads of 
departments — Faulty educational organization — Questions 
for discussion — Topics for investigation and report — Selected 
references. 

CHAPTER XIII. Organization of the Educational 

DEa»ARTMENT 177 

The superintendent as a department head — He gives charac- 
ter to the department — Sensitiveness of teachers to leadership — 
Characteristics of a good supervisory organization — Responsi- 
bility of all for successful work — A weak supervisory organiza- 
tion — Personnel of the supervisory organization — Assistant 



xii CONTENTS 

superintendent and supervisor — Cabinet solidarity — The per- 
sonal equation — Relations of superintendent and assistant — 
The special supervisors — The school principals — Increasing 
their effectiveness — Underiying purposes of supervisory organ- 
ization — Questions for discussion — Topics for investigation 
and report — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XIV. The Teachinq Corps 198 

I. Selection and Tenure. 

1. The selection of teachers — The eariy method — Defects of 
this method — Importance of guarding appointments — Funda- 
mental principles of action — Standards which should prevail — 
Methods of selecting teachers — Right rules of action — Bases 
for selecting teachers — The competitive examination — Electing 
applicants vs. hunting teachers 

2. The tenure of teachers — The usual plan — The uncertain 
tenure of teachers — The life-tenure movement — Effect of life- 
tenure on the schools — A middle ground — Terminating the 
contract — Supervisory officers and tenure — Assistant superin- 
tendents — Assignment of the teaching staff — Questions for 
discussion — Topics for investigation and report — Selected ref- 
erences. 

CHAPTER XV. The Teaching Corps 225 

II. Traininq and Supervision. 

1. The trainmg of teachers — Leavening the teaching corps 

— Professional standard for entrance — The local training- 
school — Limitations to such training — Effect of such courses 
on the school system — Training vs. attracting teachers — Train- 
ing of teachers in service — Teachers' meetings — Reading-circle 
work — Leaves of absence for study. 

2. The super\dsion of teachers — Deficient supervision — 
Supervision of the wrong type — Need for helpful supervision 

— Purpose of all supervision — Means to this end — Distribu- 
tion of time and effort — Demonstration teaching — Placing 
for effective work — Questions for discussion — Topics for 
investigation and report — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XVI. The Teaching Corps 25C 

III. Pay and Promotion. 

Low standards and compensation — Adequate pay necessary 

— What such pay is worth — Reasonable salary demands — 
Automatic increases — Rewards for growth and efficient service 

— Stimulating industry and individual improvement. 



CONTENTS xiii 

1. Graded salaries based on positions — Defects of such sched- 
ules. 

2. Additional salary grants for study. 

3. Salary grants based on grades in service — Promotions on 
recommendation — Promotional examinations. 

4. Salary grants based on efficiency — Criticism of the plan — 
Plan right in principle — Type plans for estimating efficiency — 
Incentives to growth — Essential features of a good salary sched- 
ule — Questions for discussion — Topics for investigation and 
report — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XVn. The Courses of Instruction . • .274 

I. Construction and Types. 

The superintendent and the courses of study — The superin- 
tendent's guiding hand — The construction of courses of study. 

1. Information or knowledge courses — Dependence on text- 
books — The administration of such courses — Effect on the 
instructing body. ^ 

2. The development type of courses — The principal and 
teacher in such a school system — Such courses growing courses 

— CoSperation of all needed — Variations between schools — 
Experimental rooms or schools — Study of local problems and 
needs — Economy of time in education — Questions for discus- 
sion — Topics for investigation and report — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XVm. The Courses op Instruction. . . 294 

II. Adjustments and Differentiations. 

1. Retardation and acceleration — The average course of study 

— A poorly adjusted course of study — The results of non-pro- 
motion — The effect of such conditions. — The super-normal 
chUd. 

2. Promotional plans — More frequent promotions — The 
Batavia plan — The Pueblo plan — The new Cambridge plan — 
The differentiated-course plan — The Baltimore experiment — 
The Mannheim plan of grading. 

3. Differentiations in school work — New types of schools. 

4. Fundamental reorganizations — Reorganizing the upper 
grades — Theory of the intermediate school — A reorganized and 
expanded school system — A reorganized and redirected school 
system — The Gary plan — Questions for discussion — Topics 
for investigation and report — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XIX. Efficiency Experts; Testing Results 325 

A new movement — Meaning of the movraaent — The scien- 
tific purpose — Measurement by comparison — Units or stand- 



xiv CONTENTS 

ards for measurement — Need for standards as guides — Im- 
portance of such standards — EflSciency departments — Lines 
of service; experimental pedagogy — The clinical psychologist 
and his work — A continuous survey of production — Questions 
for discussion — Topics for investigation and report — Selected 
references. 

CHAPTER XX. The Department of Health Super- 
vision S44 

Health supervision a necessity — Three stages of develop- 
ment — Scope of the work — Control of the work — The large- 
city plan — The smaller-city plan — The teacher and health 
service — Importance of the service — Questions for discussion 
— Topics for investigation and report — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XXI. The Attendance Department . . . 357 

The compulsion to attend — Differences and difficulties — 
The attendance department — Increased school attendance — 
The registration of school children — A continuing school census 
— Further obstacles and needs — Types of schools needed — The 
educational opportunity — Questions for discussion — Topics 
for investigation and report — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XXn. Business and Clerical Depart- 
ment 375 

Department organization — Work of such a department — 
Purpose of the department — Misdirection of the business de- 
partment — Purpose and position of such departments — Intel- 
ligent expenditures — Topics for investigation and report — 
Selected references. 

CHAPTER XXm. The School-Properties Department 384 

The superintendent of school properties — Purpose and place 
of this department — Responsibility of the superintendent of 
schools — A new type of building needed — The new Pittsburg 
type of building — Larger use of school-buildings — Costs for 
buildings — Payment for by tax or by bonding — Large future 
educational needs — Questions for discussion — Topics for inves- 
tigation and report — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XXIV. Auxiliary Educational Agencies . 397 

1. The public library — Efforts toward cooperation — Admin- 
istrative control — Unity of the work of library and school — The 
library in the future school. 



^^I> 



CONTENTS 

2. The public playgrounds — Playground organization — Im- 
portance of directed play. 

3. School gardening — School gardening and the school — 
New educational agencies and purposes — Questions for discus- 
sion — Topics for investigation and report — Selected refer- 



CHAPTER XXV. Costs, Funds, and Accounting . . 408 

Constantly increasing costs -—A cheap school system — 
The problem of increased funds — Funds independent of the 
council — The competition for city funds — A better school bud- 
get — Better accounting methods — School accounts and unit 
costs — Questions for discussion — Topics for investigation and 
report — Selected references. 

CHAPTER XXVI. Records and Reports 423 

Good records a necessity — PupU records — School-system 
records — The annual school report — Effective presentation. 
of information — Enlightening the public — Selected referencesu 



PART in. CITY ADMINISTRATIVE 
EXPERIENCE APPLIED 

CHAPTER XXVII. City Administrative Experience 
Summarized 433 

The city an educational unit — Administrative organization — 
Diversity as a result of unity — Teaching and supervisory organ- 
ization — Business organization and finance — Initiative and 
educational progress — Clear and unmistakable lessons. 

CHAPTER XXVni. Application to County Educational 
Organization •. 441 

City and county administration contrasted — District trustee 
control — Need for a fundamental reorganization — Rudimen- 
tary county-unit organizations — The county superintendency 
— Why trained men go to the cities — The way out — Details 
of a county-unit plan: (1) General control — (2) Educational 
Control — (3) Business and clerical control — (4 ) Powers and 
duties of the superintendent — Such a reorganization not easy — 
Steps in the process — Questions for discussion — Topics ;fof 
investigation and report — Selected references. 



XVI 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XXIX. Application to State Educational 

Organization 458 

State organization undeveloped — The chief state school office 
— Potential importance of the office — State departments of edu- 
cation — Controlling principles: (1) General control — (2) Edu- 
cational control — (3) The chief state school officer — Purpose 
of such an organization — State administrative problems — 
The State to establish minima — State stimulation vs. state uni- 
formity — Questions for discussion — Topics for investigation 
and report — Selected references. 

INDEX 473 



LIST OF FIGURES 

1. Early Organization of School Districts • • 

2. Later Organization and Reorganization 7 

3. New England Towns and Western Townships compared ... 48 

4. Units for School Organization and Administration . . , , 61 

5. City and School-District Boundaries compared 62 

6. Chart showing the Development of Special and Professional Con- 

trol in the Administration of City School Systems between 76 and 77 

7. Growth of a Professional Consciousness facing 80 

8. Tendencies of Twenty-five Years (1895-1920) in School-Board 

Reorganizations 88 

9. Frequency of Size of School Board 91 

10. A City of Nine Wards 94 

11. Illustrating the Process of Educating a School Board . . . 146 

12. Plan of Educational Organization for a Small City School Sys- 

tem, and showing Proper Relationships 167 

13. Plan of Educational Organization for a Medium-sized City School 

System, and showing Proper Relationships . between 170 and 171 

14. Plan of Educational Organization for a Large City School Sys- 

tem, and showing Proper Relationships . between 172 and 173 

15. An Incorrect Form of Educational Organization between 174 and 175 

16. Teachers' Salaries and Pay in the Trades compared . • . 254 

17. Tendencies in the Distribution of Teachers under Different Types 

of Supervision and Different Salary Schedules .... 256 
17x. A Teacher-Efficiency Score Card 266 

18. Promotional Results in a City follo\\ang a Course of Study ad- 

justed to the Average Capacity of the Pupils 295 

19. Promotional Results in a City following a Knowledge-Type Course 

of Study, and with Quarterly Promotional Examinations . . 296 

20. Retardation and Acceleration in the Grades 297 

21. The Batavia Plan 302 

22. The Pueblo Plan; Individual Progress 303 

23. The Pueblo Plan; Group Progress 303 

24. The New Cambridge Plan 304 

25. The Portland Plan 305 

26. The Differentiated-Course Plan 306 

£7. Class Organization of the Volksschule at Mannheim, Germany . 309 



xviii LIST OF FIGURES 

28. The Transformation of the Newton, Massachusetts, School Sys- 

tem between 314 and 315 

29. Result of the Redirection of the Newton Schools .... 316 

30. A Courtis Score Card in Arithmetic 334 

31. Effect of Absence on Promotion Rate and Dropping from School 361 

32. Showing Decline in Attendance after the Sixth Grade . . . 370 

33. Principal and Interest Cost for a School-Building .... 892 

34. Showing the Competition for City Funds 414 

35. County-Unit Educational Organization . . . between 448 and 449 
80. State Educational Organization between 464 and 465 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 
PART I 

OUTLINES OF STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 
CHAPTER I 

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS 

Early attitudes. Everywhere, with us, the school arose as 
a distinctively local institution, and to meet local needs. 
The Federal Constitution made no mention of any form of 
education for the people, nor does the subject occur in the 
debates of the Federal Constitutional Convention. By the 
terms of the Tenth Amendment to the Federal Constitu- 
tion,^ ratified in 1791, education became one of the many 
unmentioned powers " reserved to the States.'* 

Of the fourteen state constitutions framed by 1800, 
six made no mention whatever of schools or education, and 
in a number of the others the mention was very brief and 
indefinite. 2 Nothing which could be regarded as even the 
beginnings of a state system or series of systems of educa- 
tion existed. Nine colleges,^ a few private secondary 
schools, and a number of private and church schools offer- 
ing some elementary-school instruction of an indifferent 
character, constituted the educational resources of the new 
nation. Even in New England, where a good beginning had 

* "Article X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States 
respectively, or to the people." 

2 See Cubberley and Elliott, State and County School Administration, 
vol. II, Source Book, pp. 12-17. 

' Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Colum- 
bia, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth. Thirteen additional colleges were 
founded between 1776 and 1800. 



4 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

been made in the seventeenth century, the educational en- 
thusiasm of the people had largely died out and the schools 
had sadly degenerated. In the rural districts, where the 
greater number of our people then lived, there were prac- 
tically no schools of any kind, while in the towns and 
cities ignorance, vagrancy, and pauperism went hand in 
hand. 

Schools at first community undertakings. For some dec- 
ades after the estabUshment of our RepubHc this condition 
and attitude continued. The apprentice system and the 
school of experience, rather than the school of books, min- 
istered to the needs of the people of the time. We were a 
simple and a homogeneous people, devoted chiefly to a 
subsistence type of agriculture; the old aristocratic con- 
ception of education still prevailed; and there was Httle in 
the political, economic, or social life of the time which made 
education at pubhc expense seem important. 

Many of the earUer schools were private imdertakings, 
though, not infrequently, these were aided by public sup- 
port. Sometimes the people of a community built a school- 
house and then permitted a teacher to conduct a private 
school in it, and later on the school was taken over and made 
a public school. In still other cases the first schools were 
distinctively voluntary community undertakings, owing 
their origin and maintenance to the voluntary action and 
contributions of parents who sent their children to them. In 
still other cases the first of the early schools were estabHshed 
as public schools in response to direct legislative permission, 
though many of these were at first only subsidized private 
schools, or the " rate-bill '* — a per-capita tax levied on the 
parents of the children attending — was for years used 
to supplement the tax levied by the community for their 
support. Many of the city school systems in the territory 
north of the Ohio and the Potomac and east of the Missis- 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS 6 

sippi River trace their origin from some one of these forms of 
early community endeavor.^ 

The district unit. These early community efforts show 
how natural it was that the school district should have be- 
come the unit for educational organization. Though the 
town to the eastward and the congressional township in the 
new States to the westward were early made the unit for 
civil administration, such units soon proved unsuited to 
the school needs of the early pioneer, and, as the schools 
developed, the smaller and irregular school district, rather 
than the town or the township, became the imit for educa- 
tional organization and administration. 

As a unit for school organization the district was well 
suited to the somewhat primitive needs of the time. Wher- 
ever half a dozen famiHes lived near enough together to 
make organization possible, they were permitted, by the 
early laws, to meet together and vote to form a school dis- 
trict and organize and maintain a school. Districts could 
be formed anywhere, of any size and shape, and only those 
famiHes or communities desiring schools need be included 
in the district organization. The simphcity and democracy 
of the plan made a strong appeal. Communities desiring 
schools and willing to pay taxes for them could organize and 
maintain them; communities not desiring them or unwilHng 
to support them could let them alone. 

1 In Buffalo, for example, a schoolhouse was built privately in 1806. 
This was burned in 1813, and in 1818 the town levied a tax to rebuild the 
school, but city maintenance and control did not come for some years 
thereafter. 

In Cincinnati, private-venture schools existed before 1800; in 1817 a 
private Lancastrian school was opened; and in 1818 a wealthy banker left 
a bequest of $1000 a year "for a charity school." It was not imtil 1825 
that a public-school system was organized. 

In Chicago, on the sale of the school lands in 1833, grants were made, 
until 1844, to the teachers of the existing private schools, who in turn 
certified attendance to the public-school trustees. The first city school- 
house was not built until 1845. 



6 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



Evolution of district organization. Organized at first only 
where there were settlements, in time all the area of a 
county, and eventually of a state, came to be included in 
some school district. The evolution of districts is well 
shown in the illustrations on this and the following page. 
These show the process of district formation within a 
county. At first, during its period of settlement, only a 
portion of the county was organized into school districts; 




-• 


♦ 


♦ 


t 


^ 


• 
1 


♦ 1 


f 


• 1 


♦ 


^ 




* 


t 




M 


* 


• 1 




♦■ 


•> 


♦ 


♦ 


♦ 


•♦ 


♦ 


♦ 




♦ 




♦ 



1835 I860 

Fio. 1. EARLY ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS 



later on, all was so organized, and towns, with their graded 
school systems, began to develop. Still later, the increase 
of population led to the development of a central county- 
seat city and two towns along the line of the new railway, 
and to a subdivision of nearly all the larger rural districts; 
and, still later, the changes in the distribution of the popu- 
lation have led to the abandonment of some of the district 
organizations, the consolidation of eight others into one 
rural and consolidated school, and a very material enlarge- 
ment of the school system of the central city and the two 
towns. The process illustrated here is typical of the evo- 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS 7 

lution which has taken place in all parts of the United 
States. 



♦ ♦ * 


* ♦ ♦ ♦ J 


*■ T 

♦ ♦ « 


* ^JV^P- 


♦ ♦. jj «^ '^ 


♦ 1 


^f> ♦ ♦ ♦ 


i]7 . \M 


h^^i-* 


[ll* ♦ ♦ 




* ♦ * ♦ 


^^-* ♦ 


* ^-^ — 




t » ♦ 


r ♦ ♦ * ♦ 




1886 A910 

PiO. 2. LATER ORGANIZATION AND REORGANIZATION 



^Early district officers. Each school district, once legally 
organized, became " a body politic and corporate," and 
possessed of certain legal powers. For the government of 
the school created, members of the community, usually 
three in number, were elected by the people as district 
trustees, and they, guided by the people in the annual and 
special school-district meetings, managed the schools as 
best they knew.. As a simple and democratic means for 
providing schools for the children of people living under 
somewhat primitive pioneer conditions, the district system 
rendered a useful service. In the days before modern school 
systems were developed, when there were no courses of 
study, no supervisory officers, no sanitary regulations, and 
almost no organized body of school law or pedagogical 
knowledge, these local representatives handled the schools 
in a manner which gave reasonable satisfaction to the 
people they represented. So well was the district unit 



8 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINIBTRATION 

adapted to the educational needs of an earlier and more 
primitive society that it has, in many of our States, per- 
sisted to the present, though most of the conditions which 
gave rise to it and gave it its earher importance have since 
largely passed away. 

Rise of state systems. In time, the national land-grants 
for public schools, which began with Ohio in 1802, came to 
exert a stimulating effect on the new States to the west of 
the Allegheny Mountains. The different States early pro- 
vided for the election or appointment of trustees to care for 
the school-section lands, and, after permission to sell them 
had been granted by Congress,^ to see that the proceeds 
were husbanded and the income properly spent. The creation 
of the so-called " Literary Funds " was also begun by the 
older States to the east. The permanent school fund of 
New York dates from 1805; that of Maryland, from 1812; 
New Jersey, from 1816; North Carolina, from 1825; Penn- 
sylvania, from 1831; and Massachusetts, from 1834. 

It was some little time, however, before the demand for 
a system of pubHc schools, to supplement and in part dis- 
place the private, charity, and church schools of the time, 
made itself felt. The simple agricultural life, the homo- 
geneity of the people, the isolation and independence of the 
villages, the hard life of the time, and the absence of im- 
portant political questions to be settled at the polls made 
the need for schools and learning a relatively minor one. It 
was not until after about 1820 that the development of 
manufacturing, the extension of manhood suffrage, the 
action of the labor unions, the rise of the many humanita- 
rian movements, and the introduction of the Lancastrian 
system of instruction began to awaken a demand for 

1 First granted by Congress to Ohio in 1826, followed by permission to 
Alabama in 1827, Indiana in 1828, and, Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, and 
Tennessee in 1843. 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS 9 

public tax-supported schools, under the authority and 
partial support of the state. The " charity-school '* con- 
ception of education, under which free tuition was to be 
provided only to the children of the deserving poor; the 
plan of turning education over to the churches and reHgious 
societies, with some aid from the public purse; and the 
earher aristocratic idea that education was an individual 
rather than a pubhc matter; — all these had to be met and 
eliminated. Gradually, however, the people of the different 
States were converted to the idea of adopting pubHc edu- 
cation as a state function, and state after state began to pro- 
vide for tax-supported schools. 

Early state organizations. The first permanent law for 
the organization of schools in the State of New York was 
enacted in 1812; New Jersey first provided for the education 
of pauper children in 1820, and created schools for all in 
1838; Ohio first authorized taxation for education in 1821, 
and the law of 1825 made the real beginning of a school 
system for the State; the first school law in Illinois dates 
from 1825; Baltimore began schools in 1825, and Maryland 
enacted an optional school-organization law in 1826; 
Rhode Island first organized schools in 1828, though the 
city of Providence had organized schools as early as 1800 
and Newport had provided for its pauper children in 1825 ; 
Philadelphia was permitted to organize free schools in 1816, 
though the first Pennsylvania school law dates from 1834; 
the creation of the Massachusetts State Board of Educa- 
tion in 1837 made the beginnings of state oversight and 
control for that State and greatly stimulated schools there 
and in neighboring States; North Carolina enacted an 
optional county school-organization law in 1839; and the 
Indiana school system really dates from 1849, though the 
first permissive law goes back to 1824. 

Many of the cities began schools at about the same time. 



10 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

The pubKc school system of Cincinnati dates from 1825; 
Chicago's first public school, from 1830; Pittsburg's school 
system, from 1835; Cleveland's, from 1836; Buffalo's, from 
1837; and New York City's, from 1842; while Washington 
did not free itself from the pauper-school idea until after 
1844. In most of the smaller cities and villages free public 
schools did not begin until after they had been ordered 
estabhshed by the school law of the State. 

The battle for the establishment of tax-supported public 
schools was a bitter one, but after about 1850 it had been 
won in every Northern State. The new States to the west- 
ward have all inaugurated a free public educational system, 
as a part of the State's public service to its citizens, either 
at the time of their creation as States or during the previous 
territorial period. In the Southern States, with two or three 
exceptions, Httle was accompHshed until after the Civil 
War and the period of Reconstruction were over. 

The first school laws. Many of the earHest state laws 
relating to education were purely permissive measures. 
They merely granted to the people of the different com- 
munities in the State the right to meet and form a school 
district, and to levy, legally, a property tax for schools. 
Such laws frequently merely permitted a change in form 
from private community effort to a legal organization under 
the authority of the State. Of such a nature were the first 
laws in Ohio, Indiana, and some other States. 

Still other of these early laws were even more special, 
being, in effect, an authorization to certain specified cities 
within the State to form a public school system and to levy 
a tax for schools, but without granting such power to the 
State as a whole. Of such a nature were the early laws per- 
mitting of the formation of pubhc schools in Providence, 
Newport, and Philadelphia. After schools had been begun 
in places under these permissive laws legislation was then 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS 11 

secured, though usually only after much argument and 
effort, requiring the establishment of schools throughout 
the State. 

The change in attitude. Gradually, though but slowly, 
the state laws relating to schools were enlarged in scope, 
and a School Code for each of the States has gradually been 
built up. The history of the gradual expansion of our edu- 
cational system, and the gradual transference of powers 
from district to township, township to county, and county 
to State, in the interests of better organization and more 
efficient administration, forms an interesting part of the 
story of our nation*s growth. To trace it would be to trace 
much of the story of our national development. From a 
collection of isolated villages and rural communities we 
have expanded to a large nation, each part bound to all 
the other parts by close social, commercial, and political 
ties. New world-relationships have been developed, and the 
early isolation, and with it the early ideas as to great local 
importance, have, in large part, been swept away. New 
methods of transacting both public and private business 
have been introduced, and the need for larger units for the 
administration of the pubUc's business has been made evi- 
dent to practically all. New needs and new problems have 
arisen in our democratic hfe, for many of which education 
has been seen to be almost our only remedy. 

Pubhc education has thus gradually been established as 
a great state, one might also say a great national, interest. 
The principle that the wealth of the State must educate the 
children of the State has been firmly estabHshed. Sectarian- 
ism and the " charity-conception " have been eliminated. 
The compulsory attendance of children of school age is at 
last beginning to be enforced. The school term has been 
very materially lengthened, the course of instruction has 
been greatly enriched, the methods of instruction have been 



n PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

much improved, and an entirely new type of material equip- 
ment has been substituted. The School Code of each of the 
States to-day represents an important historical develop- 
ment, and contains a large, important, and constantly ex- 
panding body of school law, while school legislation has 
become one of the important interests considered in each 
meeting of the legislature of the State. 

The present conviction. As a result it may be stated to 
be, to-day, a settled conviction of the people of our different 
American States that the provision of a Uberal system of 
free education for the children of the State is one of the 
most important duties of the State, and that such educa- 
tion contributes very markedly to the moral uplift of the 
people, to a higher civic virtue, and to increased economic 
returns to the State. We of to-day conceive of free public 
education as a birthright of the child on the one hand, and 
as an exercise of the State*s inherent right to self-preserva- 
tion and improvement on the other. The children of to-day 
are the voters of to-morrow, and to prepare them well for 
their duties is the opportunity of the State. Each new 
generation of voters, so prepared, should in turn stand for 
an enlarged conception as to the need for, purpose, function, 
and scope of public education. In no other country have 
the people worked out so fully the purpose of making a 
system of public education good enough for rich and poor 
alike, and with equal opportunity for all, and in no other 
country have the results shown forth to better advantage 
in the general intelligence, poise, good judgment, and pro- 
ductive capacity of the people. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. How do you explain the lack of any mention of education in the Con- 
stitution of the United States? 

2. How do you account for education, which had been started well in early 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS 13 

New England, being at such a low ebb at the time of the formation of 
the Union? 

3. What do you understand to have been meant by "the charity-concep- 
tion" of education? 

4. What national developments have helped to change education from a 
private and personal matter to a general national undertaking? 

5. In what ways have national changes altered the type of unit for school 
organization best suited to educational needs? 



CHAPTER II 

STATE AUTHORIZATION AND CONTROL 

^^ The State the unit. In all of this development, however, 
\ it should be noted that the authority and power to develop 
have come from the State and not, except secondarily, from 
the community. This is an important point to be kept in 
mind. The school district, the township, the village, the 
city, and the county are all subordinate creations of the 
State, erected for the purpose of better local administra- 
tion. The State creates these subdivisions of itseK and then 
endows them with their powers, and these it may add to 
or subtract from, within the limits set by the constitution 
of the State, and as the best interests of the State may 
seem to require. It has been the people as a whole, repre- 
sented in the legislature of the State, and not portions of 
the people here and there, who have been supreme in the 
matter of educational legislation. Such has been the pohcy 
of practically every State, and such a poHcy has the support 
of practically all of the administrative experience relating 
to pubHc instruction which we have accumulated since we 
began to adopt education as a proper function of the State. 
The principle involved was so well stated by Secretary 
Hill, of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, in dis- 
cussing the right of the State of Massachusetts to require 
every town in the State to be under the supervision of a 
properly qualified superintendent of schools, that his words 
are worth quoting here entire. He said : — 

In this matter of determining what is best for the welfare of the 
schools, it should not be forgotten that it is the people as a whole 
who are supreme, and not portions of them here and there. It 



STATE AUTHORIZATION AND CONTROL 15 

needs only an elementary acquaintance with the constitution of the 
State to satisfy one that in law the State is not the creation of 
the towns, but the towns rather of the State. The powers of the 
State are not derived from the towns, but those of the towns from 
the State. In other words, the people, without reference to towns 
existing at the time, or to possible towns thereafter, organized the 
State and fixed its authority. And ever since the State has been 
making towns and unmaking them, adding to their powers and 
subtracting from them, and in a thousand ways, within the limits 
of the original compact, showing its supremacy. This way of 
putting it, however, is suggestive of a despotism that does not 
really exist; for it needs to be repeated that the State is not an 
authority apart and different from the people of the towns, ruling 
them from a distance and insensitive to their interests. On the 
contrary, the State is an expression, by formal and solemn agree- 
ment, of the will of the people living in these very towns, — the 
highest expression, indeed, the towns' people of the Common- 
wealth ever made of their civic aspirations and resolves. Whatever 
authority the town has over its schools, it has by direction and 
permission of the State; that is, by direction or permission of the 
people at large, of whom the people of the town are a part. Now, 
this view of the relation of the State to the towns and the schools, 
supported, as it is, by the constitution of the Commonwealth, 
should silence certain ill-considered talk that is heard when new 
legislation affecting the town is proposed, about the State's tres- 
passing on town rights, usurping town privileges, establishing a 
central despotism, and all that. The fundamental thing about a 
State's power is that the State, within the terms of the constitu- 
tion, can curtail, if it chooses, the rights of towns without trespass, 
withdraw privileges from them without usurpation, give them new 
powers without exhaustion of its own, and exercise additional cen- 
tral authority over them, with wide margins for subsequent con- 
tingencies. The right of the State, for instance, to determine the 
nature of the supervision the schools should have is indisputable. 
The expediency of any particular measure looking to that end, 
however, is a legitimate subject for discussion. ^ 

Court decisions. This same view has also been stated, 
more or less clearly, in decisions of the highest courts in 

1 Annual Reports of the State Board of Education of Massachusetts, 1898- 
99, p. 188. 



16 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

nearly every State of the Union. From a long series of such 
decisions quotations will be made from typical opinions, 
rendered in four of our American States, to illustrate the 
point of view of the State. 

1. New York State. In the case of Gunnison v. The 
Board of Education of the City of New York,^ the court 
said: — 

It . is apparent from the general drift of the argument that the 
learned counsel for the defendant is of the opinion that the employ- 
ment of the teachers in the public schools, and the general conduct 
and management of the schools, is a city function in the same sense 
as it is in the care of the streets, or the employment of police, and 
the payment of their salaries and compensation; but that view of 
the relations of the city to public education, if entertained, is an 
obvious mistake. The city cannot rent, build, or buy a school- 
house. It cannot employ or discharge a teacher, and has no power 
to contract with teachers with respect to their compensation. 
There is no contract or official relation, express or implied, between 
the teachers and the city. All this results from the settled policy 
of the State from an early date to divorce the business of public 
education from all other municipal interests or business, and to 
take charge of it, as a peculiar and separate function, through 
agents of its own selection, and immediately subject and respon- 
sive to its own control. . . . 

In the case of Ridenour v. The Board of Education of the 
City of Brooklyn, 2 the court said: — 

. . . He is an employee of the Board of Education. It is not a 
part of the corporation of the City of Brooklyn, but is itself a local 
school corporation, like every board of school trustees throughout 
the State, and is, like every such board, an integral part of the 
general school system of the State. It is a state and not a city 
agency, doing state and not city work and functions. Education 
is not a city, village, county, or town business. It is a matter be- 
longing to the State Government. From its comprehensive founda- 
tion by Chapter 75 of the Laws of 1795 down to the recent codifica- 
tion of our school laws, our state system of education has remained 
a consistent whole. The present Board of Education of the City of 
1 176 New York, 13. 2 15 js^ew York Misc., 418. 



STATE AUTHORIZATION AND CONTROL 17 

Brooklyn is as distinctly a part of that whole as is any school 
district in the State. 

2. Indiana. In the case of the State ex rel. Clark et al. t* 
Haworth ^ the Supreme Court, in deciding the constitu- 
tionality of an act giving to the State Board of Education 
control of the new state textbook system, said : — 

Essentially and intrinsically, the schools in which are educated 
and trained the children who are to become the rulers of the 
Commonwealth are matters of state, and not of local, jurisdiction. 
In such matters the State is a unit, and the legislature the source 
of power. The authority over schools and school affairs is not 
necessarily a distributive one, to be exercised by local instrumen- 
talities; but, on the contrary, it is a central power, residing in the 
legislature of the State. It is for the lawmaking power to deter- 
mine whether the authority shall be exercised by a state board of 
education, or distributed to county, township, or city organiza- 
tions throughout the State. With that determination the judiciary 
can no more rightfully interfere than can the legislature with a 
decree or judgment pronounced by a judicial tribunal. . . . 

As the power over schools is a legislative one, it is not exhausted 
by exercise. The legislature, having tried one plan, is not precluded 
from trying another. It has a choice of methods, and may change 
its plans as often as it deems necessary or expedient; and for mis- 
takes or abuses it is answerable to the people, but not to the courts. 
It is clear, therefore, that, even if it were true that the legislature 
had uniformly trusted the management of school affairs to local 
organization, it would not authorize the conclusion that it might 
not change the system. To deny the power to change is to affirm 
that progress is impossible, and that we must move forever "in the 
dim footsteps of antiquity." But the legislative power moves in a 
constant stream, and is not exhausted by its exercise in any num- 
ber of instances, however great. . . . 

3. Illinois. In the case of Speight v. The People ^ the 
court held: — 

All laws, whether in city charters or elsewhere, designed to 
affect free schools, may be regarded simply as school laws. And 
although they may require the boundary lines of cities to be 

1 23 New England Reporter, 946. 2 g? Illinois, 595. 



18 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

adopted as lines for the formation of school districts, and that city 
officers shall perform the duties of school officers, yet this is for 
convenience only, and the districts thus to be formed, and the 
officers thus required to perform duties, are to be regarded simply 
as agencies selected by the State to provide a system of free 
schools. Although the limits and officers of the two corporations 
are the same, their purposes and objects are different, and they are, 
in fact, separate and distinct corporations. The one has its exist- 
ence and is limited in the powers it may exercise by its charter, 
proper; the other by the school law. 

In the case of Potter v. Board of Trustees ^ the court 
held, with reference to the powers of school trustees : — 

The trustees can act only in pursuance of law. They cannot be 
compelled to act unless the law is complied with in every sub- 
stantial particular; nor are they permitted to act, until it is so 
complied with. They have no power to waive anything that is 
necessary to compel their action. They may not, as a matter of 
grace or favor, take territory from one district and add it to 
another. They may do this only in the cases provided by law, and 
whatever is essential to be done, before they are bound to act, they 
must require before they do act. They must know that the petition 
conforms to the law before they proceed. 

Jf. California. In the case of Kennedy v. Miller ^ the 
supreme court said: — 

The City of San Diego is a corporation distinct from the cor* 
poration known as the School District of the City of San Diego, 
and the rights and obligations of the school district corporation 
are to be determined by the provisions of the Political Code of the 
State, and not by those of the charter of the City of San Diego; 
and a provision of its charter, that all moneys belonging to the 
school fund of the city shall be deposited with the city treasurer, 
does not supersede the requirement of the Political Code that all 
moneys pertaining to the public-school fund shall be paid into the 
county treasury. 

The legislative declaration, in Section 1576 of the Political Code, 
that every incorporated city is a school district, though it makes 
each school district a public corporation, does not import into the 

1 10 Appellate, Illinois, 343. ^ 97 California, 429. 



STATE AUTHORIZATION AND CONTROL 19 

organization any of the provisions of the city charter, or Hmit the 
powers and functions which, as a school district, it has by virtue^ 
of the Pohtical Code. 

These clear statements of state policy are, however, rel 
atively recent expressions of our highest courts, and rep- 
resent the present clearly formulated interest of the State 
in the matter of public education. They are based in part 
on the fundamental theory as to the nature of the State 
itself, in part on the now well-established American prin- 
ciple that " the whole State is interested in the education 
of the children of the State," and in part on the convic- 
tion that the State cannot leave so important a matter 
as public education to the whims or caprices of individual 
communities. 

Delegated authority. Ultimate state control, however, 
does not of necessity involve immediate state direction and 
oversight in anything. The State may delegate its authority, 
in whole or in part, to the subdivisions it creates within 
itself for purposes of local administration. As a matter of 
fact every State does so, though some do it to a much 
greater extent than do others. 

In the early part of our educational history the delega- 
tion of authority to the subordinate units was very large. 
To the school district, in particular, the delegation in some 
of our States was so large as almost to prevent the develop- 
ment of the schools. Indiana offers, perhaps, an extreme 
example of this, though in many other States the delegation 
of control was extensive. By the Law of 1833 the district 
system was substituted for the township in Indiana; three 
trustees were to be elected annually for each school district; 
taxes could not be assessed on any householder unless he 
sent his children to school; and religious and private schools 
shared equally with the state schools in the township school 
funds. In 1836 householders were permitted to make indi- 



20 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADiVnNISTRATION 

vidual contracts for the education of their children, and 
finally, in 1841, the requirement of even a teacher's certificate 
was made optional with the district-school trustees. It was 
not until 1849 that Indiana enacted legislation which began 
the process of state subordination and control. 

Massachusetts also offers us an interesting example 
among the older States. There the school districts were en- 
dowed T\dth corporate powers in 1817, and in 1827 were per- 
mitted to select their trustees, determine the textbooks to 
be used, and to examine and certificate their teachers. In 
the days when there were practically no state standards, 
almost no supervisory officers, no normal schools or trained 
teachers, and no organized body of educational theory, such 
delegation of authority was a perfectly natural attitude for 
the State to assume. The rule of thumb and the school of 
practical experience guided both the trustees and the people 
in the management of their schools. 

The recovery of state sovereignty. As a state conscious- 
ness as to the needs and purposes of public education began 
to develop in the different States, legislation began to be 
enacted which inaugurated the process of recovering the 
original sovereignty of the State. School officers were 
created to represent the State, to gather statistics, and to 
oversee and advise as to the estabhshment of schools and 
the carrying out of the laws; state aid began to be granted, 
or was increased, and with state aid came closer state over- 
sight and control; and details previously left to local initia- 
tive now began to be placed under the control of officers 
representing larger administrative units, or were prescribed 
uniformly for all by general state law. 

This movement was well under way by 1850, but was 
checked for nearly three decades by the discussion preced- 
ing the Civil War, the war itseK, and the period of recoverjl 
following the war. After about 1875 or 1880 the movement 



STATE AUTHORIZATION AND CONTROL 21 

toward a greater unification and control of the different 
local school systems went forward rapidly, and since 1900 
the progress of the movement has been very marked. The 
process has been one of the transference of powers from 
small communities to larger school units, in the interests of 
greater efficiency in school administration. The school 
district has been forced to surrender powers to the town- 
ship, the township in turn to the county, and the county to 
the State. 

Examples of such transference. Examples of the trans- 
ference of powers from smaller to larger units of adminis- 
tration are abundant. The rights of parents to make indi- 
vidual contracts with teachers; to determine whether or not 
their children shall go to school, or whether or not they 
themselves will pay school taxes ;| and the right of parents 
assembled in district meeting to dictate the choice of the 
teacher, or to say whether a school shall be maintained this 
year or not, fare examples of powers originally possessed by 
parents, but which the State has now completely taken 
away. ' The right of the school trustees of the district to 
waive the requirement of a teacher's certificate, or to certif- 
icate the teacher selected, has been superseded by township 
or county certification, and this, in turn, has been replaced 
in many States by the requirement for all of uniform state 
teachers' certificates. Uniformity in textbooks and courses 
of study, with the city, the county, or the State as the unit, 
has displaced the earlier plan under which each school in 
such matters was a law unto itself^ Uniform laws relating 
to length of term, type of school or schools which must be 
maintained, subjects of instruction, type of school-building, 
sanitary conditions, compulsory attendance of children, and 
taxes which must be raised, have likewise superseded the 
earlier policy of leaving each district full authority in all 
such matters. 



22 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Such legislation has naturally gone further in some States 
than in others. In some a large degree of local control and 
decentralization is still the rule; in others the centrahzation 
of power in the hands of the State has become so great as 
to exert, at times, a cramping and stifling influence on the 
progress of the schools. 

Advantages of state controL State control of pubhc in- 
struction has many advantages, but it has some disadvan- 
tages as well, and the purpose of wise educational adminis- 
tration must always be to utihze the advantages and to 
minimize the disadvantages as much as is possible. As a 
whole, the possible advantages greatly outweigh the pos- 
sible disadvantages. 

One of the chief advantages of state control is the power 
of the State to determine the minimum standards to be 
permitted, and to formulate a constructive educational 
policy. Once formulated, the State can see that this policy 
is carried out. The educational needs of the State may thus 
be considered as a whole, and be legislated for accordingly. 
What the State deems to be wise for its children, it may 
require communities to provide. If any commimity is too 
poor to meet the legitimate demands of the State, the obK- 
gation then naturally rests upon the State to help such 
community to comply with its demands. 

In making education a state rather than a district or a 
municipal function, the State can also prevent local civil 
governments from overlooking or sHghting this *' major 
claim." Regardless of what may be needed by the patron- 
age departments of poKce, fire, water-front, and streets, 
the State can prevent the neglect of pubHc education, in 
the perpetual city struggle for appropriations, by giving the 
school authorities power to provide for the needs of the 
schools independently of the city governmental authorities. 
If cities or other communities do not provide properly for 



STATE AUTHORIZATION AND CONTROL 23 

their children, the State may even order that proper pro- 
vision must be made. 

In introducing uniformity where uniformity is desirable? 
as, for example, in the certification of teachers; in directing 
the extension of educational advantages to its children, as, 
for example, in the provision of high schools or vocational 
education; in requiring a longer school term, or better 
financial support; or in standardizing classroom construc- 
tion or sanitary demands, — state oversight and control 
may render very valuable service. Often the needs and 
rights of children can only be properly safeguarded by the 
intervention of the State itself, and this it should have thf» 
power to do when neglect is clearly evident. 

Disadvantages of state control. On the other hand, the 
ease with which interested parties — ■ citizens, teachers, or 
organizations — can go to the legislature of the State and 
secure school legislation which some local board of control 
has refused to grant, — such as life-tenure for teachers or 
the imposition of some bad administrative form or condi- 
tion, and which may be inimical not only to the best inter- 
ests of the schools of the community concerned but perhaps 
also to other communities in the State, — is an example of 
the disadvantages of state control. 

Another serious disadvantage, unless carefully guarded 
against in legislation, is the infliction upon large and pro- 
gressive school communities of a cramping uniformity and 
standardization, adopted either with the needs of smaller or 
average-type school communities largely in mind, or from a 
desire to standardize administration and make it easier to 
direct. Nearly all of the substantial progress which has been 
made in public education has first been made by some city 
school system, free to act in carrying out and testing a new 
idea, and such freedom in any worthy line the State should 
be very careful to safeguard. In some of our American 



m PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

States state uniformity, particularly in matters of text- 
books, courses of study, and character of instruction, has al- 
ready gone too far for the best interests of the schools. 

The State's proper functions. Up to a certain point, 
varying somewhat in different States and with the type of 
school maintained, state oversight and control are desirable. 
Too much hberty may mean weakness and lack of coordina- 
tion rather than strength. In such matters as methods of 
bookkeeping and accounting, uniform fiscal years, and uni- 
form statistical returns, the State should prescribe such a 
degree of uniformity as will produce inteUigent and com- 
parable returns. In all such matters as types of schools 
which must be maintained, length of school term, education 
and certification of teachers for the schools, the supervi- 
sion of instruction, building and sanitary standards, forms 
and rates of taxation, term for compulsory attendance, and 
child-protection laws, it is essentially the business of the 
State to determine the minimum standards which the State 
will permit in any school, or in the schools of any type or 
group into which the State may see fit to classify the schools 
for purposes of organization or administration. It is also 
the right and duty of the State to raise these minima, from 
time to time, as changing conditions or new educational 
demands may seem to require or as larger finances will per- 
mit. To do so will frequently involve reciprocal obhgations 
on the part of the State toward certain of its communities, 
but such the State must expect and prepare to meet. 

On the other hand, those charged with the administration 
of public education ought carefully to guard against un- 
necessary uniformity in non-essentials, or a uniformity 
which may tend to stifle the higher educational acti\'ity of 
any progressive community . j' This is a constant danger in 
any State as the centralization of control proceeds. Uni- 
formity in means and ends makes administration more 



STATE AUTHORIZATION AND CONTROL 25 

machine-like and hence, to the ordinary executive, easier 
to handle. Uniformity, too, appeals strongly to certain 
types of minds, and is often pushed into non-essentials and 
to a degree that is both irritating and unnecessary. It 
should be remembered that too great a uniformity is always 
most cramping and deadening on the school systems most 
capable of making substantial educational progress. Be- 
tween the two extremes the State's greatest service to its 
communities and to itself may be rendered. 

A state educational policy. It ought to be essentially the 
business of the State to formulate a constructive policy for 
the development of the education of the people of the State, 
and to change this policy from time to time as the changing 
needs of the State may seem to require. This may involve 
more than the mere regulation of schools, and may properly 
include such educational agencies and efforts as libraries, 
playgrounds, health supervision, and adult education. In- 
stead of being a passive tax-gatherer and lawgiver, the 
State should become an active, energetic agent, working 
for the moral, intellectual, and social improvement and 
advancement of its people. The formulation of minimum 
standards for the various forms of public education, the 
raising of these standards from time to time, the protection 
of these standards from being lowered by private agencies, 
and the stimulation of communities to additional educa- 
tional activity, is a fundamental right and duty of the State. 
On the other hand, to find what can safely be left to local 
initiative and control, and then to pass this down, ought 
to be as much a function of proper state school administra- 
tion as is the removal from community control of matters 
which communities cannot longer handle with a reasonable 
degree of effectiveness. Unity in essentials and liberty in 
non-essentials, as high minimum standards for all as is 
possible, constant stimulation to communities to exceed the 



26 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

minima required, and large liberty to communities in the 
choice of methods and tools and in the extension of educa- 
tional advantages and opportunities, ought to be cardinal 
principles in a State's educational poKcy and in its relations 
to its subordinate governmental units. 

QUESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION 

1. Does the reasoning of Secretary Hill appeal to you as sound? I^ not, in 
what way is it weak? 

2. Have you any legal decisions in your State in which the question of the 
unity of the State's educational system was involved? If so, what was 
the point in question, and the nature of the decision? 

S. To what extent, in yoiu* ^tate, is the State's authority in educational 
matters centralized, and to what extent delegated? List up, in parallel 
columns, a number of matters in which the State's authority is (a) cen- 
tralized, and (6) delegated. 

4. Does centralization of authority of necessity mean uniformity in proce- 
dure? Should it? If not, how may such be avoided? 

5. To what extent do you seem to have a conscious state educational policy 
in your State, and what is its nature? 

6. What recent legislation have you, in your State, which illustrates the 
advantages of state control? 

7. The tendency, in the New England States, is for the State to become 
the unit in educational administration. What peculiar advantages 
would follow state unification in educational control there? 

8. Illustrate what is meant by the State establishing minimimi require- 
ments. 

9. What reciprocal obligations are likely to be met when a State increases 
the required length of school term? 






CHAPTER III 

STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 

Evolution of forms of control. To carry out this more or 
less clearly conceived and defined state educational policy, 
each of our American States has evolved some form or type 
of state administrative organization and control. The form, 
scope, and powers of such a state organization vary greatly 
in the different States, there being as yet no standard type. 
The evolution has been so recent, and is still so clearly in the 
process of further development, that but few of our States 
have at this time reached anything Hke a settled or per- 
manent form of administrative organization. Everywhere, 
though, we find the State the unit, with a corresponding 
state educational organization of some type and degree of 
effectiveness; everywhere, outside of New England and 
Nevada, the county is also a more or less important admin- 
istrative unit to assist the State in administering and direct- 
ing the educational system; and within the county we find 
towns, townships, cities, districts, or subdistricts, estab- 
lished by the State with a view to assisting in the adminis- 
tration of the system of public education maintained. 

Chief state school officer. A common feature of each of 
our American state school systems, and including Porto 
Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines, is the election or appoint- 
ment of a chief state school officer, who is charged with 
certain definite and many indefinite functions. Prominent 
among the definite functions are certain clerical and statis- 
tical duties, specified in the school laws of the State; the 
preparation and distribution of blanks, for various pur- 
poses; the interpretation and enforcement of the laws relat- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



ing to schools; and, where there is also a state board of edu- 
cation, that of executing poHcies which have been decided 
upon by the board. The title of this officer varies somewhat, 
though that of '* state, superintendent of pubUc instruction " 
is, at present, most frequently employed. Such titles as 
"superintendent of common schools," " superintendent c^ 
free schools," *' superintendent of education," and " secre- 
tary of the state board of education " are also used by some 
of our States. In the recent reorganizations the tendency 
has been to substitute the term "commissioner of educa- 
tion" for these older designations, as being a title more 
expressive of the gradually enlarging functions of the chief 
state educational office. 

The office an evolution. Like practically all other features 
of pubhc education with us, the office of chief state school 
officer has been an evolution. The first State to create such an 
educational officer was New York, which appointed a super- 
intendent of common schools in 1812. After nine years, 
however, the office was abohshed, and the secretary of state 
acted ex officio as superintendent of schools until 1854, 
when the office of superintendent of public instruction was 
created. This official was displaced by an appointed com- 
missioner of education in 1904. Maryland provided for a 
superintendent of pubHc instruction in 1826, but in 1828 
the office was abohshed and was not re-created until 1868. 
Vermont provided for a rudimentary type of state school 
official in 1827, but abohshed the office in 1833, and did not 
re-create it until 1845. 

The first State to maintain continuously such a state 
official was Michigan, which created the office of superin- 
tendent of common schools in 1829. In 1836 the title was 
changed to " superintendent of pubhc instruction," and as 
such has continued to the present time. The creation of the 
Massachusetts State Board of Education in 1837, with an 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 29 

appointed secretary to discharge the duties of a superin- 
tendent of schools, was an event of much importance, and 
gave a decided impetus to the movement for the creation of 
a chief state school officer in each of the States. By 1850 
every Northern State and some of the Southern States had 
either provided for such an officer or had designated some 
other state officer to act, ex officio ^ as such. Most of the 
new States to the westward created the office early in their 
territorial period, and all of the Southern States provided 
for such an official soon after the close of the Civil War. 

Duties of such an official. During the early period of our 
educational history the duties of such a state officer were 
almost entirely clerical, statistical, and exhortatory. To 
look after the school lands, so far as they were under his 
control; to tabulate and edit the statistical returns required 
from the towns, townships, or districts; to compile an annual 
or a biennial statistical report; to apportion the state aid, 
as directed by law; and to visit the different parts of the 
State, stimulating teachers and school officers, and exhort- 
ing the people to establish or add to their schools, consti- 
tuted almost entirely the duties of the early state superin- 
tendents of schools. 

Since that time many new duties have been added. The 
decision as to controverted points in the school laws; the 
recommendation of courses of study, textbooks, and library 
books; the supervision of finances in the educational sub- 
divisions of the State; the issuance and revocation of teach- 
ers' certificates; the visitation and conduct of teachers' 
institutes; the recommendation of desirable changes in the 
school laws; the pubHcation of special bulletins; the inspec- 
tion and accrediting of schools; and the serving, ex officio, 
on various educational boards may be mentioned as among 
the more important of the newer duties of the office. 

New demands for leadership. Within the past decade or 



so PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

two, with the rapidly enlarging conception as to the place 
and importance of public education with us, new ideas as 
to the nature of the chief state educational office have been 
pushed to the front. The continued transference of func- 
tions and duties from smaller to larger administrative units; 
the gradual extension of state oversight and control; the 
addition of new judicial and administrative functions; the 
demand for real educational leadership in matters of instruc- 
tion, administration, sanitation, child welfare, training of 
teachers, agricultural and vocational education, and school 
legislation have all alike tended to increase the importance 
of the office and to demand a new type of chief state school 
officer. The exhorter and the institute worker have come 
to be needed less and less, the student and administrator 
more and more. 

State boards of education. Another somewhat common 
feature of our state educational organizations is a state board 
for educational control, usually known as a " state board of 
education." The first state board for educational purposes 
was the Board of Regents of the University of the State of 
New York, created in 1784, and which has continued down 
to the present. Organized at first primarily for the manage- 
ment of Columbia College, new duties and functions have 
from time to time been added until the board has finally 
evolved into a strong state board of education for the con- 
trol of the school system of the State, executing its decisions 
through an appointed commissioner of education and a 
staff of assistant commissioners and inspectors. Two other 
States ^ provided for a rudimentary form of state educa- 
tional board before 1837, in which year the State of Massa- 
chusetts created the first real state board of education, in 
the modern sense of the term. 

1 North Carolina in 1825, which was continued to 1832, and Vermont 
in 1827, but which was abolished in 1835. 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 31 

By 1852 five other States ^ had created state boards of 
education, of one type or another, though few of them were 
at first entrusted with any important functions. The care 
of the school lands and the advising of the chief state school 
officer constituted the most important duties of such boards 
in most of the States. The Massachusetts State Board of 
Education was given the most power, was the most active, 
and did the most to show the advantages of such an organi- 
zation. The story of the life and work of Horace Mann,^ 
from 1837 to 1849, is largely the story of the educational 
revival in Massachusetts and the formulation, for the nation 
as well as for Massachusetts, of the principles of state over- 
sight, advice, and control. 

Since 1852 a number of other States have created some 
form of state educational board, and the creation or recon- 
struction of others has been recommended by a number of 
state educational commissions. Not all of our States as yet 
have such a body. 

Types of state boards. Four types of state boards of edu- 
cation exist in our different American States. 

One, and the most rudimentary and unsatisfactory type, 
is a state board of education composed, ex officio, of state 
officers.^ 'Elected as such men have been for other purposes 
than educational control, and with little knowledge of, or 
interest in, pubHc education, such boards cannot, with 
safety, be entrusted with any important administrative 
functions relating to pubHc education. Such boards are 
usually superseded by a better form of organization when- 

^ Connecticut in 1839 (abolished in 1842 and re-created in 1865), Ken- 
tucky in 1838, Arkansas in 1843, Ohio in 1850, and Indiana in 1852. 

^ See particularly B. A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School 
Revival in the United States. 

^ The state board of education in Missouri is illustrative of this t\-pe, 
being composed, ex officio, of the governor, the secretary of state, the 
attorney-general, and the superintendent of public instruction. 



32 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

ever any large degree of educational control is entrusted to 
a board representing the State. 

Another type of state board is one composed entirely of 
school officers, often designated for service on the repre- 
sentative principle/ and created on the theory that, since 
educational matters are technical and require expert knowl- 
edge, only school men who have risen to important educa- 
tional positions are competent to handle them. The chief 
defects of such boards He in that the persons designated are 
usually so busy with the work of their own cities or institu- 
tions that they give little attention to the larger problems 
of the educational system of the State, and that the chief 
functions of such boards should be to govern and not to 
execute, and for this expert educational knowledge is not 
fundamentally necessary. Combinations of these two types 
of boards, forming the third type, are also foimd in a few of 
our States. 2 

The fourth type of a state board of education is the small 
appointed board, composed of citizens of the State, acting 
as a board of directors of a corporation would act and exer- 
cising general control over the educational system of the 
State, but acting through the appointed executive officers 
of the board. Such forms a true board of educational con- 
trol, and represents the most desirable type of state educa- 
tional board which we have so far evolved. 

1 The Indiana state board of education represents this type, being com- 
posed of the governor, the superintendent of pubHc instruction, the presi- 
dent of the State University, the president of Purdue Universit3% the pres- 
ident of the State Normal School, and the superintendents of city schools 
in the three largest cities of the State, ex officio, together with one county 
superintendent of schools and two other persons actively engaged in edu- 
cational work, to be designated by the governor, for three- year terms. 

2 Virginia illustrates such a combination, the state board of education 
there being composed of the governor, the attorney-general, and the super- 
intendent of public instruction, ex officio, and three educators, elected by 
the legislature from a list of eligibles submitted by the boards of trustees 
of the different state educational institutions. 



STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 33 

Good state educational organization. Within the past 
decade certain rather clearly marked tendencies have be- 
come manifest with us in the matter of state educational 
organization. The recent legislative reorganizations in a 
number of our States^ have followed, in the main, one 
direction. This has been the creation of small appointed 
state boards of education composed of representative citi- 
zens of the State, and substituting such boards for the 
former ex officio types of boards; the change of the chief 
state school officer from a popularly elected state official 
and clerk into an expert executive officer and adviser of the 
state board of education, and selected and appointed by 
it; and a marked increase in the powers and duties of both 
the state board of education and its executive officers, with 
a view to evolving a real state board for educational over- 
sight and control. 

The position of chief state school officer under a good form 
of state educational organization is, potentially, a more im- 
portant position than that of the presidency of the state 
university of the State, and the recent legislative reorgan- 
izations have been in the direction of making it actually 
become such. The school business of any of our large Amer- 
ican States has by now evolved into a very important state 
undertaking, costing the people of the State millions of 
dollars annually to maintain, and as such it should be 
placed under a form of management and control dictated 
by the best American experience in city and corporation 
management. What these are we shall set forth in Part II 
of this volume. 

The problem at hand. The problem at hand is how best to 
create a state educational organization capable of handling 

^ For example, New York in 1904; Massachusetts in 1909; New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Oklahoma in 1911; and California and Idaho 
in 1913. 



84 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the State's educational business and problems in a really 
large way. The present very limited and poHtically organ- 
ized state educational departments cannot much longer 
continue to try to handle the situation. With an efficient 
state department of education, organized along lines cal- 
culated to insure large and intelligent service, and manned 
by a number of properly qualified expert executive officers, 
many functions now handled rather poorly by local officials 
and subordinate administrative units could and should be 
transferred to state control. Conversely, with an efficient 
reorganization of subordinate administrative units, as we 
shall point out further on, certain functions now exercised 
by the State could be passed down to these subordinate 
units to handle, and as local needs might seem to require. 
The real problem is how to secure greater administrative 
efficiency without interfering with local initiative and im- 
pairing local administrative efficiency. 

QUESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION 

i. Classify the duties of the chief state school officer in your state under 
the headings of (a) Administrative, (6) Supervisory, (c) Clerical and 
Statistical, and (d) Judicial. 

2. How much real power has he, under each head? 

3. What new demands have come on the office in your State during the past 
decade? 

4. If there is a state board of education in your State, of what type is it? 

5. What powers and duties are entrusted to it? 

6. Is there any clear distinction between legislative and executive functions 
in its work? 

7. Illustrate what is meant by "unity in essentials and liberty in details in 
the attainment of results, and liberty in plan," as applied to state edu- 
cational supervision and control. 

8 In what way is the position of chief state school officer potentially a 
more important one than that of president of the state university? 



CHAPTER IV 

COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 

The county in school administration. All of our American 
States are subdivided into counties, for purposes of local 
administration. As an administrative unit the county is 
least important in New England, and most important in 
the West and South. ^ The size of the county varies greatly, 
being smallest in the South and largest in the West, though, 
due to the greater sparsity of population in the West, the 
county there can hardly be said to have, as yet, attained its 
ultimate size. In the better settled portions of the United 
States an area from 350 to 600 square miles represents the 
usual size. ^ 

As a subordinate division of the State for the administra- 
tion of the educational system maintained by direction of 
the State, we find the county in all stages of evolution from 
practically nothing to an important administrative unit. 
In New England and Nevada attempts to make use of the 
imit for purposes of school administration have been aban- 
doned. In New England the county unit, so Httle used there 

^ In New England the county is used for little except judicial purposes, 
while in the West and South it forms a natural unit for the management of 
almost all phases of the county's business. 

2 For example, the average size of the counties in Maryland is 415 square 
miles; Virginia, 402 square miles; Georgia, 389 square miles; Alabama, 
765 square miles; Ohio, 463 square miles; Indiana, 392 square miles; Illi- 
nois, 549 square miles; Nebraska, 835 square miles; Colorado, 1728 square 
miles; Utah, 3044 square miles; and California, 2684 square miles. In other 
words. Eastern and Southern counties vary from 20 by 20 miles square to 
25 by 30 miles square, while Western counties run from 40 by 40 to 60 
by 60 miles square. Yet in the West the county is extensively used as an 
administrative unit. 



36 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

for any administrative purpose, was given up as an educa- 
tional unit decades ago in favor of the smaller town.^ In 
Nevada, due to the sparsity of population, the county unit 
was abandoned for the larger unit of a group of counties 
united to form a state supervisory district, under the super- 
vision of an assistant state superintendent.^ In all other 
American States we find the county as a more or less im- 
portant educational subdivision of the State, extending 
from the weak county and strong district combination, as 
found in Missouri, to the county as the unit of organization 
and administration, as found in Maryland. Between these 
two extremes all forms or stages in the development of 
county control are to be found. 

Evolution of a county school officer. As education began to 
evolve into a state interest in our country, the need for de» 
veloping some subordinate form of state control became 
evident. The school-land sections needed to be looked after 
by some person representing the larger interest of the State; 
the local school officials needed supervision, to see that they 
maintained schools as required by the laws, and that the 
school moneys were properly levied and spent; an agent to 
coUect statistical information for the State and to act as a 
means of communication between the State and the school 
districts became more and more desirable; and, often most 
important of all, an agent of the State was needed to stimu- 
late a local interest in schools, and to help and inspire teach- 
ers in their work of instruction. 

Hence a county school officer, known as a county super- 
intendent of education, a county school superintendent, 

1 An irregular area of from 20 to 40 square miles. 

2 There are at present five such ofiBcers for the entire State of Nevada. 
Nevada has an area practically the same size as that of New York and the 
six New England States combined, but only about as many teachers are 
employed in the entire State as are employed in such a city as Fall River, 
Massachusetts. 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 37 

or a county superintendent of public instruction, was grad- 
ually provided for, sometimes by amendment of or during 
a revision of the constitution of the State, and sometimes 
by statute laws. Sometimes, too, the office was gradually 
evolved out of some other county office, such as auditor, or 
treasurer, or probate judge. -^ In Iowa and in some of the 
Southern States the office evolved oat of the presidency or 
executive officer of the county board of education, an or- 
ganization which in some States preceded the county super- 
intendency. In New York and Michigan, too, the township 
superin tendency preceded the county superintendency. The 
office of county superintendent of schools began about 1835, 
and by about 1870 was common in most of the older States. 
In the newer States to the west the office was frequently 
created in the territorial period. 

Early duties of the office. Everywhere, at first, the county 
superintendent was to a very large degree a clerical and 
statistical officer, representing the State in the carrying out 
of a state purpose, and serving as a means of communication 
between the State on the one hand and the school districts 
of the county on the other. He recorded changes in district 
boundary lines; apportioned the income from funds to the 
districts; saw that the teacher employed possessed a teach- 
er's certificate; collected figures as to expenditures, attend- 
ance, etc., and reported the same for his county to the 
State; visited the schools and advised trustees and teach- 

1 Illinois and Indiana represent the process fairly well. In 1835, in Illi- 
nois, the oflfice of county land commissioner was created to look after the 
school lands; in 1845 some educational functions, and the title of ex oficio 
superintendent of schools were added; and in 1855 the position of county 
superintendent was created. In Indiana a county school commissioner was 
created in 1835 to look after the school lands, as in Illinois; in 1841 the 
duties were transferred to the county auditor, and he was made ex officio 
a county school officer; in 1853>a county examiner of teachers was created, 
and the school functions of the auditor transferred to him; and in 1873 the 
position of county superintendent of schools was created. 



38 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

ers; and exhorted the people to provide for and extend their 

schools. 

His duties were simple and required no professional train- 
ing or skill; so election from among the body of the elector- 
ate, and for short terms, with as frequent changes in the 
office as in the case of any other county officer, early be- 
came the estabhshed method for securing this official. 
Officially he represented the State; actually he represented 
the people. The method of nomination from among the 
electorate of the county, and election by popular vote, es- 
tablished early, has been followed by the new States to the 
west, and was carried into some of the Southern States 
in the period of Reconstruction following the Civil War. 
Despite a number of changes which have since been made, 
the elective method remains to-day the most common plan 
for selecting the superintendent of education for our 
counties. 

New and changed duties. After the office of county'- super- 
intendent of education had become established, new duties 
began to be entrusted to this new official. Some of these 
new duties were passed down from the State above, in the 
form of a delegation of authority; others were gathered up 
from below, by taking the powers away from the districts. 
Most of the new powers have come from the gathering-up 
process, the districts being gradually deprived of more and 
more of their early power and authority, in the interests of 
the more efficient education of the children of the districts 
concerned. Examples of such transference of powers and 
authority have been cited in Chapter II. 

As the result of a long process of transference, extending 
over more than half a century, the office of the county super- 
intendent of schools has to-day, in many of our American 
States, evolved into an office of large potential importance, 
and the county superintendent has become a general over- 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 39 

seer of education, representing the State. The county, too, 
has become, to a greater or less degree in the different 
States, an important subordinate unit for the administration 
and control of the State's system of public instruction. In 
all clerical and business matters the county superintendent, 
or some clerk acting for him, acts as a county supervising 
officer for all records and business matters concerning the 
schools within the county. In professional matters the super- 
intendent commonly acts as the chief educational officer of 
the county, determining largely what is to be done. UnUke 
other county officers, his functions are only in part cleri- 
cal and routine; and if he is to render the highest service he 
must be a professional leader rather than an office clerk. 
It might almost be said that his real effectiveness as a county 
superintendent is determined by how far he is able to sub- 
ordinate office routine to real professional leadership. While 
much of his work must be at the county seat, his real work, 
nevertheless, must fee out in the schools of his county. 

New demand for educational leadership. Perhaps the 
most marked change which has come in the conditions sur- 
rounding the office of county superintendent of schools, 
within the past two decades, has been the marked increase 
in the demand for the exercise of professional functions. The 
effect has been to inaugurate a movement which will, in 
time, effect important changes in the office of county sup>er- 
intendent of schools. The rapidly rising demand for real 
professional supervision for the rural schools, supervision 
that is close, personal, and adequate, and the many move- 
ments for the improvement of rural education, which have 
been brought to the front so prominently within the past 
ten years, are expressions of this changing conception as to 
what the office ought to be and what the officer ought to 
do. The yearly visit of a politically elected county educa- 
tional officer no longer suffices; what is needed now is the 



40 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

close oversight and direction of an expert in village and 
rural education, — one possessed of imagination, breadth of 
view, and expert technical and professional knowledge. 
Everywhere our rural and small town schools are calling for 
educational leadership and for professional supervision of a 
new type, but this cannot come, in most cases, until there 
is a marked change in the nature of the county educational 
office. Of what this change should consist, and the nature of 
the new functions and duties which should be developed, we 
shall point out more in detail in Part III, after we have first 
considered the problem of administering and supervising 
school systems in our cities. 

County boards of control. In a number of our American 
States some form of county board for school control, com- 
monly known as a "county board of education," has been 
created by law and with a view to carrying out better the 
State's educational purpose in estabHshing schools.^ To 
such boards either consultative powers or additional edu- 
cational functions have been entrusted, with a view to im- 
proving the administration of the system of schools within 
the counties. 

Some of these boards are quite rudimentary in type, as, 

for example, county high-school boards of Nevada, whose 

sole function is to act as a board of control for the county 

high school, should such an institution exist. The ex officio 

boards of county textbook commissioners in Iowa or South 

Dakota, whose one function is to adopt textbooks for use in 

the counties, also represent another rudimentary type. The 

county boards of examiners, found in many of our States, 

and whose function is to examine and certificate teachers 

1 In a number of Southern States such boards preceded the provision 
for a county superintendent of education, such oflBcer frequently being 
evolved out of the presidency of such a board, or being selected by it to act 
as its agent and executive officer. Iowa and Delaware represent the former 
method; Georgia and Louisiana, the latter. 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 41 

for the counties, represent another type of county board for 
partial school control. The county boards of education 
of Cahfornia,^ which examine and certificate teachers for 
the schools, examine pupils for graduation and issue di- 
plomas, make the courses of study, and approve supple- 
mental books and apparatus for purchase by the districts, 
represent a still higher degree of county board control. 

In addition to such rudimentary or partially developed 
county boards, a few of our States have also provided for 
the appointment or election of real county boards of educa- 
tion, boards which exercise functions analogous to those ex- 
ercised by city boards of education. In a few of the States 
having such boards they exercise a coordinating and super- 
vising authority over the different school districts of the 
county; in a few others they have reached their full logical 
development, and direct, in conjunction with the county 
superintendent of education, the schools of the whole county, 
much as a city board of education and a city superintendent 
of schools direct the schools of a city. Where the full logical 
development has been attained, the school districts naturaUy 
have been subordinated to county oversight and control. 
Maryland and Utah offer good examples of such develop- 
ment. 

The educational problem involved. The problem now be- 
fore our American States is what form or forms of county 
education organization will secure for the rural and small 
town schools of the State the best educational administra- 
tion and the closest, most effective, and most highly pro- 
fessional supervision. The rural-life problem, which has 
developed within the past two decades and which is now 

* Composed of the county superintendent of schools, ex officio, as secre- 
tary, and four others appointed by the board of county supervisors, three 
of whom must hold teachers' certificates. These are boards of school men, 
exercising largely professional functions. 



42 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

forcibly demanding attention, is fundamentally a problem 
of educational reorganization, and the rural schools of our 
States are badly in need of such an educational reorganiza- 
tion and redirection as will enable them to render a dis- 
tinctively larger service to the commimities in which they 
are located.^ 

These reorganizations and reconstructions call for con- 
structive educational leadership of a new type, and the 
changing of the county to a more important unit for the 
administration of the system of public instruction which 
the State has seen fit to organize and to maintain is one of 
the important steps in that direction. The county super- 
visory system is weak in almost all of our Northern and 
Western States, partly because of the pohtical nature of the 
office of the chief county school officer, partly because the 
clerical rather than the professional functions predominate, 
partly because county boards of control of the right type 
have not, as yet, been developed, and partly because of the 
large powers still granted to subordinate educational units 
within the county. Under a good form of county educational 
organization the possibiHties for helpful and constructive 
service are very large, and the office of county superintend- 
ent of education will, in time, become an office of large 
importance, attracting to the position many of the best- 
trained men engaged in educational work. Before indicating 
how this may be accomplished, however, we wish first to 
pass to a brief consideration of these smaller educational 
administrative units, and then to a somewhat detailed con- 
sideration of the organization, administration, and prob- 
lems of one type of these units. 

* In another volume in this series. Rural Life and Education, the author 
has set forth this rural-life problem at much greater length and has pointed 
out the means necessary for its solution. 



COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 43 



QUESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION 

1. To what extent is the county an educational unit in your State? 

2. How and when did the county school oflBcer evolve in your State? 

3. Is the method at present followed in your State for securing this oflBcer 
satisfactory, or not? If not, what changes in method would you suggest? 

4. List up some of the powers and duties that have been transferred from 
the districts to the county educational authority. 

5. Classify the duties of the chief school oflBcer of your county under the 
headings of (a) Administrative, (6) Supervisory, (c) Clerical and Statis- 
tical; and (d) Judicial. 

6. How much real power has he, under each head? 

7. If the district system jBourishes in your State, how do the powers of 
the county superintendent compare with those of a board of district 
trustees? 

8. If there is a county board of education in your State, in what stage of 
development is it, judged by its powers? 

9. How far are the powers which it exercises helpful and stimulating to 
the schools, and how far restrictive and unintelligently uniform? 

10. How much of an attempt has been made, in your State, to reach the 
rural-life problem through educational reorganizations and redirections? 

11. Illustrate some of the new demands for leadership on the oflSce of 
County Superintendent of Schools. 

12. Compare rural and city school supervision as to adequacy and 
effectiveness. 



CHAPTER V 

TOWN, TOWNSHIP, AND DISTRICT ORGANIZATION 

County subdivisions for administration. In a few of our 
States, as has been mentioned, the county has been made 
the unit for educational administration,^ but in most of our 
States the county is still further subdivided into smaller ad- 
ministrative units for the more detailed administration of 
the State*s educational system. These smaller administra- 
tive units are towns in New England, townships in the 
North-Central States, and school districts in all parts of the 
Union outside of New England. Each of these smaller units 
also represents the State, in a small locality, in the carrying 
out of the State's educational purpose; each is entrusted 
with more or less limited powers, and is charged with more 
or less important duties; and each, except in New England 
and Nevada, reports through the county unit to the State, 
and is in turn in part directed in its work by the county 
educational authorities. We shall next consider these sub- 
ordinate units, and in the above order. 

The town. The town is a pecuharly New England insti- 
tution, though the term is also applied to similar subdivisions 
in New Jersey. A New England town is irregular in shape, 
following hills, water-courses, or old roads. In size it 
contains, as a rule, from twenty to forty square miles. The 
New England town thus has natural geographic boundaries, 

^ That is, all schools in the county, with the exception, perhaps, of large 
cities, are under the management and control of one county board of edu- 
cation, which employs the superintendent of schools and directs the general 
work of organizing the schools. In Georgia the central city is a part of the 
county organization. See map on page 51 for the county-system States. 



TOWN, TOWNSHIP, AND DISTRICT 45 

and as a result commonly embraces a natural center for a 
community life. The term "town" is applied to all of the 
area included within the civil government, and may include 
farmland, suburban residence districts, villages, and even a 
small city.^ 

The educational affairs of each town are managed as a 
unit by one town school committee, elected by the people 
of the whole town, and all of the schools of the town — 
city, village, and rural — are under its control. For super- 
vision each town in Massachusetts, and to a certain extent 
in the other New England States as well, separately or in 
conjunction with one or more other more or less contiguous 
towns, must employ a superintendent of schools who de- 
votes his time to the work of supervision, ^ and who acts as 
the executive officer of the school committee or committees. 
A superintendent in Massachusetts thus presides over a 
small and compact school system, either a city school system 
or a small county school system in type. ^ To a large degree 

^ A New England town is thus somewhat like a Western township, ex- 
cept in form, though the use of the term "town" is quite different in the 
two parts of the country. 

2 All towns in Massachusetts must employ a superintendent of schools. 
Of the 354 towns and cities in the State, 119 employ a superintendent alone, 
while the remainder unite with other towns to employ such an officer. 
There are 74 union superintendencies in the State, — 20 of 2 towns each, 
25 of 3 towns, 26 of 4 towns, 2 of 5 towns, and 1 of 6 towns. The Massa- 
chusetts idea of compulsory supervision is being extended rapidly to the 
other New England States. 

^ Supervisory Union No. 64 (in Essex County), and the city of Newton, 
in Massachusetts, illustrate these two types well. 

Union No. 64 is composed of the four towns of Merrimac, Newbury, 
Salisbury, and West Newbury, The total population of the four towns is 
approximately 6800, the combined area about 57 square miles, and the 
number of teachers employed 39, for the 34 different schools. This is es- 
sentially a small rural county. 

Newton, on the other hand, with a population of approximately 40,000, 
an area of 18 square miles, maintaining 25 schools and employing 315 
teachers (1915), is essentially a city school system. 

Many such examples may be found in the different New England States. 



46 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the problems of organization and administration in New 
England are the problems of either a city or a county school 
system to the westward. Instead of reporting through a 
county educational officer, and being subject in part to his 
oversight, these towns report directly to the state educa- 
tional authorities. 

Marked features of the town system. Perhaps the most 
marked feature, as well as perhaps the most commendable 
single feature, of the New England town system for school 
control, is the organization of all of the schools — rural, 
village, and city — of the geographical area known as a 
town under one school board, one superintendent, and one 
administrative organization. The school districts within 
the towns, which once existed generally throughout New 
England, and which did more to ruin the efficiency of the 
schools of the towns than any other single feature, have 
everywhere been entirely abandoned,^ and town school 
control has been substituted in their stead. So far as district 
lines still remain they exist merely to classify and regulate 
the school attendance. 

All children in the different schools of the town are pro- 
vided with an equal length of term, high schools and special- 
school advantages are open equally to all, special subjects 
of instruction and special supervision go to all schools, the 
school property is all under one board of control, and the 
cost of maintaining the school system of the towns is spread 
equally over the property of the entire town. The schools 
of the whole geographical area known as the town are man- 
aged as a unit, just as the schools of a city elsewhere are 
a unit for maintenance, administration, and supervision. 
This, and the natural character of the town boundaries, 
are two of the most important advantages which the New 

* ^ See map on page 51 for dates of the final abandonment of the district 
system. 



TOWN, TOWNSHIP, AND DISTRICT 47 

England town possesses over the Western township form of 
school organization. 

The township. The township system of the North-Central 
group of States is a somewhat similar but less well-developed 
form of school organization, and may be regarded as an imper- 
fect adaptation of the earlier New England town system to 
the newer States of the Central West. Like the New Eng- 
land town system, the Western township form of school 
organization attempts to provide for the systematic organi- 
zation and administration of the educational affairs of a 
whole township under one responsible board, ^ elected by 
the people to manage the schools, and with the idea of secur- 
ing something of the same efficiency in educational adminis- 
tration which characterizes a New England town. As a sub- 
ordinate unit for educational administration it is greatly 
superior to the still smaller school district which it has gen- 
erally displaced. A better equalization of both the oppor- 
tunities and the advantages of education are provided under 
it than under the smaller district unit, and it is more effi- 
cient and economical as well. In the matter of providing 
high-school facilities for rural communities the township, 
in the upper Mississippi Valley, has rendered particular 
service. 

Disadvantages of the township unit. The chief disadvan- 
tages of the W^estern township unit lie in its rectangular out- 
hnes, its lack of adaptability to natural community bound- 
aries, the exemption of the central towns from township 
control, and its fixed area, — too large for some purposes, 
and much too small for others. 

Instead of following natural geographical boundaries, de- 
fined in outline by natural community lines, and varying in 

1 Usually a board of three or five, but in Indiana the schools are under 
the control of the same one township trustee who looks after roads, bridges, 
and poor-relief for the township. 



48 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



size to meet local needs, as do the New England towns, the 
Western township boundaries run straight across the coun- 
try, following the points of the compass, and bear no relation 
to natural geographical features or to possible community 
boundaries. The area, too, which is six miles square every- 
where west of east central Ohio, has too often in the past 
proved too large a unit for purposes of school organization. 
In the future, with better developed means of transporta- 
tion, it is likely to prove too small. 




Fio. 3. NEW ENGLAND TOWNS AND WESTERN TOWNSHIPS 
COMPARED 



Essex County, Mass. Area 497 sq. miles, 
34 towns. 



Huntington County, Ind. Area 
386 sq. miles. 12 townships. 



The difference is well shown in the two counties drawn 
in the above figure. These differences in size and shape 
and area, together with the fact that the township form of 
organization is unadapted to rough country, are distinct 
weaknesses of the Western township unit. 

Almost nowhere do we find the township unit in simple 
and well-defined form. Even in Indiana, which represents 
perhaps the best example of the township form of school 
administration, the unity of the township is nearly every- 
where broken into by the exemption of the central incor- 



TOWN, TOWNSHIP, AND DISTRICT 49 

porated town or city from any close connection with the 
township educational organization. i In financial matters, 
in particular, the central town or city is largely or wholly 
independent. This fundamental difference from the New 
England town system of school administration, where a 
unified school organization is the rule, is another distinctly 
weak feature of the Western township unit for school organ- 
ization and control. 

The township unit not fundamentally necessary. The 
county oversight and control in the North-Central States, 
which is absent in New England, is also another important 
difference between the town system of New England and 
the township system under discussion. The towns of New 
England deal directly with the State, as there are no county 
educational authorities; the townships of the North-Central 
States deal primarily and directly with the county educa- 
tional authorities, and only secondarily and indirectly with 
the State. This difference makes the township unit much 
less necessary for school administration in the West than is 
the town in New England. 

Like the town in New England, the township marked a 
distinct advance over the school-district unit which gener- 
ally preceded it, but, as will be pointed out in a later chapter 
(Part III), better administrative conditions could now be 
provided in most of our States if all fixed administrative 
units, smaller than the county, were displaced by making 
the county the educational unit, and then organizing within 
the county, and as the changing necessities of education 
might seem to require, flexible and changeable administra- 
tive groupings to meet local conditions and needs. 

The school-district unit. The rise and spread of the dis- 

' That is, the central village, as soon as it comes to possess any property, 
is permitted to set itself off as a separate school district, and to become 
^BjMiciaily and educationally independent of the township. 



50 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

trict unit for school organization and administration has 
been traced briefly in Chapter I. It was the natural unit in 
the beginnings of our school systems. It was particularly 
adapted to a time of little general interest in pubhc educa- 
tion, before the period of state and county school officers 
and a developed administrative organization, and among 
agricultural communities with but few means of communi- 
cation and but httle interest in one another. It was well 
adapted, too, to the days of small things, and to schools which 
gave instruction only in the rudiments of an education. 

Originating in New England, and as a part of the process 
of disintegration of the earlier town government, it spread 
to the westward and to the south, and firmly estabhshed 
itself before conditions were ripe for any other unit of or- 
ganization. (The result is that to-day, after nearly all the 
conditions which gave rise to the district form of organiza- 
tion have passed away, and when new social and educational 
needs are almost imperatively demanding a larger and a 
better unit for rural-school organization and administration 
and a different type of school, the little district unit is 
tenaciously clung to by the rural people of many of our 
States, and largely because they remember its earlier ad- 
vantages and are blind to its present defects. 

Bad features of the district unit. As a unit for school 
organization and maintenance the district system has been 
condemned by educators for fifty years, and the educational 
conditions existing in any State to-day, so far as they relate 
to rural and village education, are in large part to be deter- 
mined by how far the State has proceeded along the line of 
curtailing the powers of the district-school officials and trans- 
ferring their functions to county and state educational au- 
thorities, or of entirely abandoning the district system of 
school organization and administration. The map on the 
opposite page shows the use of the different units of school 



52 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

organization and administration in the different American 
States. 

( The district unit is no longer so well adapted to meet 
present and future educational needs as are other units of 
larger scope. District-school authorities are usually short- 
sighted, and often fail to see the real needs of the schools 
under their control. The large number of district-school 
trustees required — an army of thirty to forty-five thou- 
sand in an average well-settled State — in itseK almost pre- 
cludes the possibility of securing any large proportion of 
competent and efficient men. The district unit is entirely 
too small an area in which to provide modern educational 
facilities, and the difficulty of securing cooperative action 
of the trustees of a number of adjacent districts for a larger 
and a better school is a difficulty that is almost insuperable. 

As a system for school administration the district system 
is expensive, inefficient, inconsistent, short-sighted, unpro- 
gressive, and penurious; it leads to a great and an un- 
necessary multiplication of small and inefficient schools; the 
trustees frequently assume authority over matters which 
they are not competent to handle; it leads to marked in- 
equalities in schools, terms, and educational advantages; 
and it stands to-day as the most serious obstacle in the way 
of the consolidation of rural schools. Most of the prog- 
ress that has been made in rural education within the past 
two decades has been made without the support and often 
against the opposition of the district-school trustees and 
the people they represent. 

District system not necessary. To have a fully organ- 
ized board of school trustees for every little schoolhouse in 
the county, — a board endowed by law with corporate rights 
and important financial and educational powers, — is wholly 
unnecessary from either a business or an educational point 
of view. In fact, it is just such boards which impede pro- 



TOWN, TOWNSHIP, AND DISTRICT 53 

gressive action and stand as the most effective block in the 
road of real educational progress. As a means for providing 
for the establishment of schools the district system has 
rendered its service, and there is to-day Httle call for the 
continuation, in any great numbers, of the kind of schools 
which the district system brought into existence and nour- 
ished through the critical period of the infancy of our state 
educational systems. The real progress of rural social life 
and social institutions to-day depends upon the organiza- 
tion, for country people, of an entirely different type of 
rural school. "~^ 

A fundamental reorganization needed. What is needed 
is a fundamental reorganization and redirection of rural 
and small village education, and along Unes which will trans- 
form such schools into more useful social^ institutions.* 
This, however, can be accomplished only by some authority 
of larger scope and insight than the district-school trustee, 
and by the application to the problem of a larger type of 
administrative experience than that represented by district 
control. In New England this is in process of accompHsh- 
ment by the town, or the grouping of towns, acting under 
the educational oversight of the State. Elsewhere the 
county seems the natural unit for this reorganization. In 
Part III we shall point out the many advantages which the 
county possesses for this purpose, and lay down the funda- 
mental principles which should govern sound county edu- 
cational organization. 

Before doing this, however, we wish first to consider the 
special administrative problems of one important form of 
the school district, concerning which we have so far said- 

^ Of what this reorganization and redirection is to consist, and why it is 
needed, has been set forth in the author's Rural Life and Education, which 
see. The legal form which such a reorganization needs to follow has been 
set forth in the author's State and County Educational Reorganization, which 
also see. 



64 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

but little, with a view to ascertaining what the administra- 
tive experience of this form of school district has been, and 
how far this administrative experience may be apphed gen- 
erally to the solution of the problems of county educational 
organization and administration, which everywhere present 
themselves, and, to a certain extent, to the problems of 
state educational organization and administration as well. 

QUESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION 

1. Why is the organization of all the schools of a town — rural, village, 
and city — under one board of control a distinct educational advantage? 

2. Assuming that the chief reason for the segregation of the villages and 
cities in the West has been the financial one, why is its continuance 
unwise? How might this stimulus to segregation be ehminated? 

3. How does the township unit provide for a better equalization of the op- 
portunities and advantages of education than does the district unit? 

4. From the figure on page 48 point out the advantages of the New Eng- 
land town over the Western township in the matter of boimdaries. 

5. What is the value of the common argument for the school district, — 
that it is the most democratic of our units for government, and has been 
very valuable in training our citizenship in the institutions of democ- 
racy? 

6. Why has the movement for the consolidation of schools made but little 
headway, and why is it likely to make but little headway in the future, 
in any strong district-system State? 

7. Take the figures for any district-system State and calculate the number 
of trustees needed to manage the schools. Try to estimate the unnec- 
essary duplication of effort and the waste in administration resulting 
from such a number of people working at the same task. 

8. Under a rational reorganization of the educational affairs of a county, 
with good consolidated schools replacing the many district schools, 
about what percentage of the present teaching force would be needed 
to conduct the elementary schools? What effect would such consoli- 
dated schools have on the extension of educational advantages? 

9. In a number of States an attempt has recently been made to educate 
trustees as to their duties by an annual institute. Of about what value 
is this ? 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 

The city district a special case. The special form of school 
district which we wish first to consider is that of the city 
school district, — a form which presents a very different type 
of problems from that of the rm^al or small village district. 
It is of com-se true that the city school district is, in a sense, 
only a comitry or a village school district grown large; but, 
by reason of its very size, the character of its population, 
the complexity of its interests, and its pecuhar needs and 
problems, it represents a form of school district which should 
be given special powers and be treated somewhat as a spe- 
cial case. Still more, cities of different size present quite 
different problems in organization and administration, — a 
city of fifty thousand people having quite different condi- 
tions and needs from those of a city of five thousand, or, on 
the other hand, from those of a city of half a million popula- 
tion. Even two cities of approximately the same size, say 
one hundred thousand inhabitants each, may, due to very 
different social, economic, and racial needs, present quite 
different educational problems for solution. 

"WTiile necessarily a part of the state educational organi- 
zation, city school districts nevertheless represent special 
as well as somewhat individual problems, to which uniform 
standards and mass requirements cannot be applied if the 
best educational results are to be expected. The minimum 
standards of the State for such districts the city school dis- 
tricts should of course be expected to meet, but large free- 
dom should be given cities in exceeding the state minima. 



56 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

and in the choice of the tools and methods by which they 
are to accomphsh the required educational results. 

The city district an evolution. In the beginnings of our 
school systems there were but few cities, and nearly all 
schools were rural schools. With the growth of our popula- 
tion, and with the increasing tendency of our people to con- 
gregate together in centers, certain areas or places increased 
in population much more rapidly than did others. Rural 
school districts developed into villages, villages into small 
cities, and small cities into large ones.^ As the community 
grew, the number of small ungraded one-teacher schools 
was multipHed, and later these were collected together into 
larger buildings, and into a more or less graded school or 
group of graded schools. StiU later a pubhc high school was 
organized. The school principal was evolved, and later on 
the supervising principal or superintendent. At first the 
number of school districts was multipHed, without unifying 
the schools. Later, when unification was effected, the board 
of trustees frequently was increased in size, either by the 
addition of new members for the new schools or the new 
areas annexed, or by the subdivision of the rising city into 
wards and the election of one or more members to the board 
from each ward. The title of the board was also changed, 
in the process of development, from that of the '* board of 
school trustees," or " school directors," to that of " city 
board of education," and the school laws of the State now 
granted to the new board enlarged powers in the adminis- 
tration and control of the schools. Most of our city school 
districts have had such an educational history.^ 

1 This is in a way illustrated by the growth of the central city in Figs. 1 
and 2, on pages 6 and 7. 

2 The city of Buffalo illustrates the process fairly well. The first school- 
house was erected in 1806. This was burned in 1813, and the first tax for 
an educational purpose levied by Buffalo was in 1818, for the purpose of 
rebuilding this school-building. By 1832 the growth of the city had beea 



THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 57 

Recent rapid growth of city school systems. It was not, 
however, until about 1850 or 1860, and one might almost 
say until after about 1870, that the special problems of city 
school organization and administration began to attract se- 
rious attention. In the first place, there were but few cities 
at an earlier date, and these were relatively small in size.^ 

such that six small school districts, each with one small schoolhouse and 
one teacher, had been organized within its confines. Even in 1837, when 
a new law permitted the appointment of a city superintendent of schools 
to coordinate and oversee the schools, there were but seven districts and 
seven teachers, so that his duties must have been very light. On the full 
establishment of the free-school system, in 1839, the number of districts was 
increased to fifteen and a school ordered estabhshed in each, with a central 
school for instruction in the higher English branches. 

The schools of Chicago present a somewhat similar history. The first 
public school was opened in 1830, and by 1835 the school system consisted 
of five school districts, each with its own board of district-school trustees, 
each of which employed teachers, levied taxes, and built buildings. In 
1851 the power to employ teachers was taken from the district trustees, of 
which there were now seven boards, and in 1853 the position of city super- 
intendent of schools was created, to grade the schools and to introduce order 
and unity into the system. 

The present city of Redlands, in southern California, offers a good modern 
case of a similar nature. Three country school districts happened to abut 
at the place where this city began to grow. Each district was under the 
control of a special board of three district-school trustees, and each main- 
tained a small rural school. In time the schools increased from one-room 
schools to many-room schools, and a principal was employed by each 
board. The three districts later united for the purpose of establishing and 
maintaining a high school, but retained their separate identity as ele- 
mentary-school districts. The three elementary-school principals evolved 
into supervising principals, as the schools grew. They met together and 
made a gentleman's agreement with one another and with the high-school 
principal with regard to transfers, school regulations, courses of instruc- 
tion, and standards. Finally, the people voted to consolidate the three 
elementary-school districts and the high-school district into one city-school 
district, under a city superintendent of schools, and to substitute one city 
board of education for the different district-school boards. 

^ The modern city has been made possible by steam and electricity and 
the solution of the problems of sewage and water-supply. Steam and elec- 
tricity have provided transportation and machinery, thus making manu- 
facturing on a large scale possible, while the solution of the sanitary prob- 
lems has removed the greatest handicap to the growth of mediaeval towns. 



58 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Table showing growth of cities in the United States 



Year 


Per cent of total 

population in 

cities of 8000 

or over 


Number of cities 


of 8000 
or over 


of 50,000 
or over 


of 250,000 
or over 


1790 


3.3 
4.0 
4.9 
4.9 
6.7 
8.5 

12.5 

16. , 

20.9 

22.6 

29.0 

32.9 

38.7 

43.8* 


6 

6 

11 

13 

26 
44 
85 
141 
226 
286 
447 
545 
782 
924 


2 

2 

3 

5 

9. 

16 

25 

35 

58 

79 

109 

146 




1800 




1810 




1820 




1830 




1840 


1 


1850 


2 


I860.. 


3 


1870 


7 


1880 


8 


1890 


11 


1900 


15 


1910 

1920 


19 

24 







*In addition to this percentage add 7.6 per cent for persons living in cities of 2500 or over 
and under 8000, and 8.5 per cent for persons living in incorporated places of less than 2500 
inhabitants. This leaves 40.1 per cent of the population, in 1920, as living in rural districts 
and unincorporated villages. 

Their school systems, too, were of a relatively simple type, 
and their boards of school trustees, with the people of the 
districts, exercised almost complete control. But few cities 
had as yet created the office of superintendent of schools, 
and the few which had had assigned clerical rather than 
executive functions to the new official. As late as 1870 
there were but twenty-nine city superintendents^ of schools 

^ These 29 cities were, with decades of their first appointment: — 



Buffalo, N.Y. 


1837 


Baltimore, Md. 


1849 


Chicago, 111. 


1854 


Louisville, Ky. 


1837 






St. Louis, Mo. 


1854 


Providence, R.I. 


1839 


Cincinnati, 0. 


1850 


St. Joseph, Mo. 


1854 






Boston, Mass. 


1851 


Indianapolis, Ind. 


1855 


Springfield, Mass. 
New Orleans, La. 


1840 


Gloucester, Mass. 


1851 


Worcester, Mass. 


1855 


1841 


New York Citv 


1851 


Milwaukee, Wis. 


1859 


Rochester, N.Y. 


1843 


San Francisco, Cal. 


1852 






Columbus, 0. 


1847 


Jersev City, N.J. 


1852 


Albany, N.Y. 


1866 


Auburn, N.Y. 


1848 


Newark, N.J. 


1853 


Kansas City, Mo. 


1867 


Brooklyn, N.Y. 


1848 


Cleveland, 0. 


1853 


Washington, D.C. 


1869 


Syracuse, N.Y. 


1848 


Oswego, N.Y. 


1853 







From a table prepared by William T. Harris, while United States 
Commissioner of Education. 



THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 



59 



employed in the entire United States,^ and with but thirteen 
of the thirty-seven States represented. As late as 1860, also, 
but sixty-nine of oiu* present cities are regarded as having 
by that time organized a clearly defined high-school coiu*se 
of instruction. 

Since 1870 the growth of city school systems, both in 
number and size, has been very rapid, and with this growth 
many new problems in school organization and administra- 
tion have been pushed to the front. The number of city 
school systems has been multiplied rapidly since 1870, and 
the size of many then in existence has trebled or quadrupled. 
In 1870, too, there were but fourteen cities having 100,000 

Table comparing cities and States in size, 1920 



City 


Popidati/m 


State 


Population 


New York City t 

Chicago 


5,621,151 
2,701,705 
1,823,158 
993,739 
796,836 
748,060 
588,193 
576,673 
457,147 
437,571 
401,247 
387,219 
380,582 
314,194 
234,595 
179,754 
75,917 


Ohio 


5,759,368 


Wisconsin 


2,631,839 


Philadelpliia 


Louisiana 


1,797,798 


Detroit 


Florida 


966,296 


Cleveland 


Oregon 


783,389 


Boston 


Maine 


768,014 


Pittsburgh 


Rhode Island 

Montana 


604,397 


Los Angeles 


547,593 


Milwaukee. . Jit 


Utah 


449,446 


"Washington. 


New Hampshire 

Idaho 


443,083 


Cincinnati 


431,826 


New Orleans 


New Mexico 

Vermont 


360,247 


Minneapolis 


352,421 


Indianapolis 


Arizona 


333,273 
223,003 


St. Paul 


Delaware 


Worcester 


Wyoming 


194,402 


Harrisburg 


Nevada 


77,407 









^ The Civil War gave a check to the movement for city school supervision, 
but three cities being added during the war decade. By 1876, however, 
142 cities, out of the 175 cities at that time having 8000 inhabitants or over, 
had city superintendents of schools, and the number has rapidly increased 
since then. In the Educational Directory, published by the United States 
Commissioner of Education, 2798 superintendents in cities and towns of 
over 2500 inhabitants are listed for 1920-21. 



60 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

inhabitants ; in 1920 there were sixty-eight such cities, and 
these sixty-eight cities contained 26 per cent of the total 
population of the United States. In these larger cities the 
pubKc school system is comparable in size to state school 
systems, while the administrative problems are different and 
more difficult and the complexity of the school system is far 
greater. This may be seen, in part, from the previous com- 
parisons, based on the United States Census Reports for 1920. 

Prominence of city administrative problems. With the 
increase in both the number and the size of cities, and the 
marked increase in the number of educational functions 
assumed by the cities, as their school systems have evolved, 
the schools in our cities have differentiated themselves in 
character from those in the rural districts and the small 
villages. So marked has been the modification of school 
systems to meet special urban needs, arising as a result of 
the rapid development and the changing character of our 
municipal population, problems, and governments, that it 
may be said that the great bulk of the problems of school 
control which have been before us for discussion and solu- 
tion, during the past forty years, have been problems relat- 
ing especially to the city school district. Only recently have 
our rural and village schools received any particular atten- 
tion, either in discussion or in legislation. So rapid, too, has 
been the city development since about 1860 or 1870 that 
the ingenuity of both legislators and school men has been 
taxed to evolve ways and means by which our city school 
districts could meet the many new problems which the 
rapid growth and changing character of our cities have 
pushed to the front. 

The citjr's distinctive contribution. As a result our city 
school systems have so far offered the largest opportimities 
for constructive educational leadership, attracting the best 
minds to their service. It is not too much to say that the 



THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 61 

great educational advance which we, as a nation, have 
made during the past half -century has been, to a very large 
degree, the advance which our cities have made in organiza- 
tion, administration, equipment, instruction, and in the ex- 
tension of educational advantages. The grading of schools, 
the development of high schools, the introduction of instruc- 
tion in special subjects, night and continuation schools, va- 
cation schools, playgrounds, evening lectures, schools for 
adults, the kindergarten, schools for dependents and de- 
linquents, compulsory education, health supervision, voca- 
tional guidance and vocational instruction, free textbooks 
and suppUes, the estabUshment of the value of good super- 
vision and business organization, and the working-out and 
establishment of sound principles in educational organiza- 
tion and administration, — these have been distinctive con- 
tributions which the city school district has made to our 
educational theory and practice. 

As a result, most of our best administrative experience 
in the field of public education is that which has been worked 
out in the organization and administration of the school 
systems of our American cities. It is to them, then, that we 
naturally turn first for guidance in handling our administra- 
tive problems. A study of their best administrative experi- 
ence can frequently throw much light on administrative 
problems in other fields of public education. 

State vs. city control of the school district. One very im- 
portant reason why the cities have been able to make such 
marked educational progress, and to contribute so much to 
our theory and practice in the field of school organization 
and administration, is that, in the past, our city school 
districts have been quite free to go ahead, within the limits 
of their finances, and do what they saw to be done and knew 
how to do. Up to recent years the States have been willing 
to grant to the cities almost any form of educational charter. 



62 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

and have shown but little disposition to interfere with them 
in their educational work, though there is, at present, a 
growing tendency toward uniform regulation and toward 
an increase of the state control. The general interest of the 



MAP OF 

PORTLAND, ore: 

SHOWING 

BOUNDARIES 
City -Mi>-iwaM«aMi 
School T^'°»""» 

Schools ■ 




• ! 

Fig. 5. CITY AND SCHOOL-DISTRICT BOUNDARIES COMPARED 

The above map of the city school district and the municipality of Portland, Oregon, 
as they were in 1913, shows the two corporations as only partly coterminous, the 
school district being larger than the city. ISach dot indicates the location of an ele- 
mentary school, and each small square a high school. The government of the two 
corporations is almost entirely distinct. (From the Report of the Portland School 
Survey, World Book Co., Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York. Reproduced by permis- 
sion.) 



people of the whole State in the maintenance of good schools, 
the laws requiring all communities to meet certain minimum 
standards, and the general conception of the school district 
as a separate and distinct corporation from the munici- 
pal corporation with which it may be partially or wholly 



THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 63 

coterminous, have all alike served to protect the school sys- 
tem from too great interference by the municipal authori- 
ties. These have been important points of strength for the 
cities. 

Protection instead of bureaucracy. With the growing 
tendency of the State to increase its oversight and control 
of all types of school districts, and the constant temptation, 
with the growth of the school system, to interested persons 
in municipalities to subordinate pubhc education to per- 
sonal ends, there is an increasing need for a clearer defini- 
tion of the rights, powers, duties, privileges, and obligations, 
individual and reciprocal, of both the State and the school 
districts of our cities. To preserve the schools from the 
deadening rule of a state bureaucracy, and at the same 
time to protect them from political exploitation or neglect; 
to leave to the cities as large hberty in the selection of tools 
and methods as is consistent with the securing of the results 
desired by the State; to see that local school systems are 
adequately financed, instead of being subordinated to the 
pressing demands of other city departments; and to keep 
the school systems of the city school districts in touch with 
community needs and expressive of community wishes, and 
at the same time safeguard them from pohtics; — these 
are the principal problems in the relation of the State to 
the city school districts subordinate to it. The State, as the 
guardian of the educational rights of its future citizenship, 
must see that local administrative units do not override 
such rights for local or poHtical or selfish ends, and at the 
same time must not unduly cramp or hmit the efficiency of 
the city school districts. 

Other problems of relationship. In addition to these 
primary problems of state oversight and control, the prob- 
lems of relationship confront the State in dealing with the 
city school district. Chief among these are as to the best 



64 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMLNTISTRATION 

form of organization for the board of control for the city 
school system; the powers and duties which should be given 
to such boards; the business and statistical relations of city 
school districts to the county and to the State; the classi- 
fication of city school districts on the basis of size, or some 
other basis, for the placing of extra educational require- 
ments and the granting of larger freedom; the powers which 
should be guaranteed, by law, to the superintendent of 
education and other executive officers in city districts; the 
extent to which cities, as centers of wealth, should contrib- 
ute to the partial maintenance of schools in county and 
State; the general business administration of the schools, 
and the financial powers to be given city district boards, 
both for annual maintenance and plant expenditures; 
special requirements as to the school plant; health super- 
vision and sanitary control; special problems relating to the 
teaching corps; courses of study and textbooks; and the 
maintenance of special-type schools. The prime purpose of 
the State in legislating on all such matters is not so much 
to impose its will as to stimulate the cities to educational 
activity; not so much to insist upon the State's methods as 
to insure satisfactory final results. Any wise constructive 
state educational pohcy will keep these problems of relation- 
ship clearly in mind, and will observe, wherever possible, a 
definite line of demarcation between the powers and rights 
of the State and the privileges and options of communities. 
It is primarily the business of the State to preserve and 
advance the general educational welfare, but in doing so it 
should allow all reasonable scope to the city school districts 
in all matters in which individual variation may be desir- 
able. 

To study the city first. The great number and the great 
variety of the problems involved in good city school ad- 
ministration to-day, even in the city of small or moderate 



THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 65 

size, and the fact that the city has for some time been a place 
of conflict, where the fundamental principles underlying 
sound educational organization and administration have 
been fought out, make it particularly desirable that we 
should turn to a special study of our best city administra- 
tive experience before considering further the general prob- 
lems of state and local control. After having done so 
(Part II) we shall return to these general problems, and 
shall then attempt (Part III) to apply the results of such 
experience. 

QUESTIONS FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION 

1. Why has the school-district meeting passed out with the establishment 
of city boards of education? 

2. Name three causes for the rapid and continued concentration of popu- 
lation in cities. 

5. Why has such a marked educational expansion been necessary, for the 
larger cities, during the past half-century? 

4. How would you classify cities, if drawing up a law for their government 
for school purposes, and what different powers and duties would you give 
to the different classifications? 

6. What are some of the specific restrictions which your State imposes on 
the cities in their exercise of control over the schools? 

6. What do you understand by "freedom in the choice of tools and 
methods by which they [city school districts] are to accomplish the re- 
quired educational results"? 

7. Compare the administrative problems of a state superintendent of 
public instruction in any of the States given in the table on page 59 
with those in the corresponding city. 

8. Is there "a growing tendency to increase the state control" over city 
school districts in your State, or not? If so, how has it manifested itself ? 

9. Would you say that it has been the result of a more general apprecia- 
tion, on the part of the public, of a state responsibility for good schools, 
or to some other cause? 

10. Show that, as regards public education, the relation of the State to the 
city is essentially and necessarily different from the relation with refer- 
ence to other municipal functions. 

11. Distinguish between natural centralizing tendencies in state educa- 
tional administration, and "aggrandizing tendencies" on the part of the 
state educational officials or state boards. 

12. What fundamental educational principle should underlie all centraliz- 
ing legislation? 



Q6 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

IS. Distinguish between narrow and prescriptive, and liberal and adapta- 
ble state oversigbt and control of city school districts, in such legislative 
matters as courses of study, school building plans, maintenance of 
special-type schools, and secondary education. 

14. Why is it that we can point out the weakness of a situation years before 
we can hope to remedy it by legislation? 

15. To what extent is the proper solution of the problems of relationship, 
cited on pages 63 and 64, tied up with progress in other fields of polit- 
ical and social endeavor? 

16. Should the State attempt to direct or supervise the instruction in city 
school districts, under a city superintendent of schools? If so, to what 
extent and how, and in what size of cities? 

17. Is there a tendency in your State to subordinate the interests of the 
schools "to the pressing demands of other city departments"? If not, 
why not? If so, why so? 

SELECTED REFERENCES COVERING PART I 

The following books and magazine articles cover the subject-matter of 
the chapters of Part I: — 

Bard,H.E. The City School District. 118 pp. Trs. Col. Contribs. to Educ. 
no. 28; New York, 1909. 
A study of the relations between the city school district and the city on the one hand 

and the State on the other. 

Brown, S. W. The Secularization of American Education. 158 pp. Trs. Col. 
Contribs. to Educ, no. 49; New York, 1912. 

A study of the gradual process by means of which American education was secular- 
ized. 

Chamberlain, A. H. The Growth of Responsibility and Enlargement of Power 
of the City School Superintendent. 158 pp. Univ. Cal. Pubs.; Education, 
vol. Ill, no. 4; 1913. 

Section III of this thesis k very good along the lines of Chapters II to V, and 
Section IV along the lines of Chapter VI. 

Chancellor, W. E. Our Schools; Their Direction and Management. 338 pp. 
D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1908. 

Chapter I, "The State and the School," considers the school as an agent of the 
State. 

Cubberley, E. P. Changing Conceptions of Education. 68 pp. Houghton 
Mifflin Co., Boston, 1909. 

A brief historical sketch, relating especially to Chapters I and II. 

Cubberley, E. P. Rural Life and Education. 365 pp. Houghton Mifflin Co., 
Boston, 1914. 

Chapters IV, V, VII, and VIII of this book describe the effect of the rural-life 
changes (Chapters I and II) on the rural school ; rural-life needs ; the fundamental 
needs of rural education; and the forms (units) for organization and control of schools 
(Chapters IV and V). 



THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 67 

Cubberley, E. P., and Elliott, E. C. State and County School Administration. 
Vol. I, Principles. Macmillan Co., New York, 1916. 

Division II, "State Administrative Organization," contains seven chapters (V-XI) 
dealing with the State and its educational subdivisions, and the relationship of each 
to the problem of proper state educational organization and administration. 

Cubberley, E. P., and Elliott, E. C. State and County School Administra- 
tion. Vol. II, Source Book. Macmillan Co., New York, 1915. 

Chapters I, V, IX, and XI contain illustrative documents on the origin, present 
status, and needs of the State and its subordinate administrative units. 

Draper, A. S. "Educational Organization and Administration"; in Butler, 
N. M., Education in the United States. American Book Co., New 
York, 2d ed., 1910. 

A brief general statement (31 pp.) of American orgaoization, prepared for the Paris 
Exposition of 1900. 

Draper, A. S. American Education. Houghton MiflBin Co., Boston, 1909. 

Part I, Chapters I-IV, 60 pp., contains "The Nation's Purpose"; "Development of 
Schools" ; "Functions of the State"; and "Legal Basis of Schools." Good articles on 
the organization of American education. 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. S. Administration of Public Education in the 
United States. 614 pp. Macmillan Co., New York, 2d ed., 1912. 

Chapters IV-VIII cover the State and education, local units, problems of adminia* 
tration, and city school systems. 

Elliott, E. C. Legal Decisions Relating to Education. Macmillan Co., 
New York, 1916. 

Chapter V, "The State the Unit," contains a series of supreme-court decisions, 
further illustrative of the principles of state control laid down in Chapter II. 

HoUister, H. A. The Administration of Education in a Democracy. 377 pp. 
Scribners, New York, 1914. 

Chapters I-IV (pp. 1-71) contain a short historical account, and describe our na- 
tional ideals and the unts employed for school organization and administration. 

Monroe, Paul (editor). Cyclopedia of Education. Macmillan Co., New York, 
1911-13. 

A very important work • See especially the articles on " City School Administra- 
tion"; "County System"; "District System"; "State School Administration";" Town 
System"; and "Township System." 

Moore, E. C. "Indispensable Requirements in City School Administra- 
tion"; in Educational Review, Vol. 46, pp. 143-56. September, 1913. 

An excellent article on the fundamental proposition that the city school district is 
a state, and not a city, administrative unit. 

Parker, S. C. The History of Modern Elementary Education. 505 pp. 
Ginn & Co., Boston, 1912. 

Chapter XII, "Development of American Secular School Systems," describes the 
development in New York City, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Indiana, as typical. 

Rollins, F. School Administration in Municipal Government. 106 pp. 
Col. Univ. Contribs. to Phil. Psy. and Educ, vol. xi, no. 1; New York, 
1902. 

Chapter I, pp. 11-20, is a good short chapter on the interest of the State m the 
school administration of cities. 



68 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION 

Seerley, H. H. "The Province of the Common People m the Administra- 
tion of Public Education"; in Proceedings of National Education Asso- 
ciation, 1909, pp. 415-23. 

Stands for large local liberty, as opjKJsed to centralized control. Followed by a 
discussion of the paper by Professor W. S. Sutton. 

Webster, Wm. C. Recent Centralizing Tendencies in State Educational Ad- 
ministration. 78 pp. Columbia Studies in History, Economics, and 
Public Law, vol. vni, no. 2; New York, 1897. 
A study in the changes of relation of the State to public education. 



PART II 
THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT AND ITS PROBLEMS 



CHAPTER VII 

EVOLUTION OF CITY SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND 
ADMINISTRATION 

The original town control. The taking-over of education 
from the church as a function of the State, and the evolu- 
tion of an administrative organization and machinery for 
its maintenance and control, was a long and, for a time, 
a very slow process. It began, in the United States, when 
the school in New England was founded as a creation of the 
civil instead of the religious town, but it was not until the 
nineteenth century that a full civil directing body to man- 
age the school was finally evolved, and the process of evolv- 
ing professional supervision for the schools was begun. The 
process is best illustrated in the case of Massachusetts, and 
forms an interesting introduction to the study of city school 
administrative organization and control. 

In the first general law of the colony definitely requiring 
the establishment of schools, the Massachusetts General 
Court placed the responsibility for their establishment and 
maintenance with the towns, as wholes.^ At first, when the 
school was a small and a simple affair, and when neither 
the educational nor business control of the school presented 
any problems of consequence, the people, in town meetings, 
attended to the matter of education just as they attended 
to matters relating to roads, defenses, or the civil govern- 
ment, and just as, in religious meeting, these same people 
attended to matters relating to the affairs of the religious 

^ Decree of the Massachusetts General Court of 1647. For the full text 
of the decree see Paul Monroe, Sources in the History of Education in the 
United States. 



72 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

parish. The practice of the different towns varied some- 
what, though in general the people, assembled together in 
town meeting, first voted to establish and afterward to sup- 
port the school, and then voted to select a schoolmaster 
for it.^ 

In these early meetings of the townspeople we find the 
first faint beginnings of the process of differentiating between 
the lay and the professional functions in school control. 

In that early vote of school support [says Suzzallo ^] are implied 
those powers and duties of school administration which have al- 
ways remained, for the large part, in the hands of laymen officials 
in school affairs. In the early vote of electing the teacher are im- 
plied those powers and duties of school supervision which have 
passed, or are, by slow degrees, passing into the hands of a pro- 
fessional class of educational workers. 

Subtracting powers from the towns. The Law of 1647 
had required the different towns to establish and maintain 
schools, and had imposed a fine of five pounds for failure to 
do so. Every detail relating to the carrying of this law into 
effect, however, was left to the people of the towns. Seven 
years later the first step in the direction of any control of 
the towns was made in a general law of the Colony which 

* A few examples will illustrate this: — 

Boston, in town meeting in 1635, established its first school by the 
adoption of the following order: — 

"Likewise, it was then generally agreed upon, that our brother Philemon 
Pormont shall be entreated to become schole-master for the teaching and 
nourtering of children with us." 

A year later Charlestown voted to arrange with William Witherell "to 
keep a school for a twelvemonth," and fixed his salary at £40 a year. 

Cambridge, in 1638, established its first school by voting certain lands 
for "the vse of mr Nath Eaten as long as he shall be Imployed" in the 
work of teaching the school. 

Newbury, the year following, granted to Anthony Somerby "foure akers 
of upland" and "sixe akers of salt marsh" as an "encouragement to keepe 
schoole for one year." 

2 Henry Suzzallo, The Rise of Local School Supervinon in Massachusetts^ 
p. 4. 



EVOLUTION OF CITY ORGANIZATION 73 

commended to the selectmen ^ of the different towns that 
they exercise some supervision over the character of the 
teachers employed by the towns. ^ Nearly forty years later 
(1693), by a second law, the selectmen and the towns were 
jointly charged to see that the schools were maintained, and 
the selectmen were given power to levy taxes for schools, 
provided a majority of the people of the towns had previ- 
ously voted to direct them to do so. 

Excepting these two very limited laws, no action looking 
toward the removal from the town of any of its powers 
relating to schools was taken during the seventeenth cen- 
tury. The law of 1701-02, which required the master for 
the grammar school to be examined and certificated by a 
majority of the ministers of the town and the two adjoining 
towns, was the first real subtraction of power from the 
people of the town as a whole. The law of 1711-12, which 
applied the same principle to teachers for the elementary 
schools of the town, and placed the power to examine and 
certificate such persons definitely with the selectmen of the 
town, was the second subtraction of power. 

Both of these subtractions, made by direction of the 
State, were subtractions of educational functions, and were 
made in the interests of a higher degree of efficiency in 
the schools. In the first case, the power to examine and 
certificate was given to a distinctly educational body; in the 
second, to the representative body for the government of 
the town. The people still voted funds, cared for the school 
property, selected textbooks, and directed the instruction. 

* Selected men representing the town in certain forms of its business; the 
prototype of the modern city council as a city-governing body. 

2 The law commended to "the selectmen in the seuerall townes, not to 
admitt or suffer any such to be contynued in the office or the place of teach- 
ing, educating or instructing of youth or child, in the colledge or schooles, 
that haue manifested ym selves vnsound in the fayth, or scandelous in 
theire liues, & not giueing due satisfaction according to the rules of Christ." 



74 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Rise of the school committee. As the school business 
of the towns increased, there was a natural tendency among 
the towns toward the appointment of special committees 
for various educational purposes. Sometimes these com- 
mittees were purely special and temporary,^ and some- 
times they were appointed for definite purposes and for 
definite periods of time.^ These committees, however, were 
appointed by the towns for mere convenience of adminis- 
tration, and without either the authorization or direction of 
the general law. 

In 1798, for the first time, a new state law, deahng with 
the certification of teachers, recognized such special com- 
mittees by authorizing the acceptance, for elementary- 
school teachers, of a certificate from such committees in lieu 
of a certificate from the selectmen, and by implication also 
sanctioned the employment of teachers for the schools by 
such special committees. ^ This law also gave the selectmen 
some power in the grading of the schools, and also made 
the visitation and inspection of schools a uniform require- 
ment upon the ministers and selectmen or committees of 
the several towns. 

This last requirement marks the beginnings of author- 
ized supervision in Massachusetts, and from this time on 
special school committees began to be appointed in the diff er- 

* For example: Duxbury, in 1747, appointed a committee of one as 
"their Agent to procure a Schoolmaster"; Dudley, in 1760, appointed a 
committee of three to sell the schoolhouse; and in 1762 Braintree appointed 
a committee of three "to examine into the state of the School." 

2 For example: Boston, in 1721, appointed the first committee on visita- 
tion for the schools, and continued to appoint such annually thereafter for 
nearly a century; Springfield, in 1735, appointed a committee of three "to 
take the Inspection and Regulation of the School" on the west side of 
the river; and Fitchburg, in 1776, gave to a school committee supervisory 
power over the teachers employed by the town. 

2 Referring to the certification of grammar-school and other masters, 
the law includes the following clause: "such Selectmen or Conmiittee, who 
may be authorized to hire such schoolmaster." 






EVOLUTION OF CITY ORGANIZATION 75 

ent towns. ^ Often, however, these new school committees 
also included the selectmen.^ 

In 1826 the State took the final step in the evolution of a 
distinct school board by ordering each town in the State to 
elect a separate school committee ^ to have " the general 
charge and superintendence of all the public schools " of 
the town.^ This law marks the final transfer of the educa- 
tional functions from the selectmen to a new body, created 
for the purposes of administering public education in the 
towns. This new body now elected the teachers, certificated 
them, supervised the instruction, selected the textbooks, 
had control of the school-buildings, and made rules and 
regulations for the control of the schools. The voting of 
school support was now the only power of importance re- 
maining in the hands of the people. 

Two centuries of evolution. We see here the result of 
two centuries of evolution in the organization and adminis- 
tration of public education. When the civil school first 
arose, and for some time afterward during its period of 
infancy as a public institution, the people of the towns, in 
town meeting, arranged all details relating to its control. 
As the schools grew and increased in size and importance, 

* Many of the towns took advantage of this law and appointed school 
committees, or boards. The School Committee Records of Newburyport 
date from 1790, those of Boston from 1792, and those of Hingham from 
1794. 

^ In Boston, for example, the school committee consisted of the entire 
board of selectmen and twelve additional committeemen, elected by the 
people of the town in the annual town meeting. 

3 This is still a common New England designation of what elsewhere is 
generally called "board of education." 

* An exception to this was Boston, where, on the incorporation of the 
city in 1822, the control of the schools was given to the eight aldermen of 
the new city. This continued until 1835, when a separate school committee, 
composed of two citizens to be elected annually from each of the twelve 
wards of the city, together with the mayor and the president of the common 
council, ex officio, was created. 



76 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the first of the functions represented by the two early votes, 
namely, that of voting support, remained with the towns; 
but the second function, namely, that of choosing the 
teacher, became complicated, differentiated itseK into a 
number of more or less professional acts, and was gradually 
delegated by the people to those who could represent them 
better than they could act for themselves. 

The first professional act to be differentiated was the certi- 
fication of the teachers employed; the next was the visita- 
tion and inspection of their work; and, finally, the right to 
employ the teacher also passed from the hands of the people 
into the hands of others who represented them. At first, 
these representatives were the learned men of the towns, — 
the ministers, or the men selected by the people for the 
general town government; finally, a special representative 
body (school committee) was evolved, selected because of 
supposed ability to direct the system of public education 
maintained, and to this body were transferred the educa- 
tional functions formerly resting with the towns. The final 
compulsory establishment of school committees (1826) 
marks the definite recognition by the State that the people 
of the towns were no longer able en masse to handle intelli- 
gently those educational matters relating to the teaching 
function of the school. Such matters were now to be de- 
cided for them by their representatives (or by the State); 
the voting of school support alone still remained with the 
people. 

Massachusetts a type. Massachusetts represents a type 
of the best of our colonial development, and brings the 
evolution of city school control up to the close of the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century. By this time the school 
board had clearly evolved, and its functions had become 
fairly well established. This is shown in the chart in- 
serted here. From this time on it is only a further differ- 



i 



EVOLUTION OF CITY ORGANIZATION 77 

entiation of functions and a delegation of powers to execu- 
tive oflBcers. 

It is in Massachusetts, too, that the breaking-up of the 
towns into school districts first reached its extreme develop- 
ment. Beginning early in the eighteenth century, the proc- 
ess reached its culmination in the Law of 1827, enacted in 
part as a reaction against the Law of 1826, whereby the 
districts were created bodies corporate and politic and the 
trustee for each (" prudential committeeman,'* as he was 
called) was given power to appoint the teacher for his dis- 
trict. This law marks the high-water mark of the district 
system in Massachusetts; after 1837 it was on the defensive, 
and was finally abolished in 1882. The influence of this 
development on the new States to the westward, however, 
was large. 

Tjrpes of development elsewhere. It is at about the 
point reached by Massachusetts by 1826 that the develop- 
ment in many of our other earlier States begins, and one or 
the other of the plans worked out in Massachusetts was 
followed by them. Some cities began with the district 
system, and later united the various districts into one city 
school system; ^ others began, from the first, with a board 
of education (school committee) for the city as a whole; ^ 
a few followed, for a time, the plan employed in Boston 
from 1822 to 1835, and placed the schools under the direct 
control of the city council; ^ and a few others empowered 
the city council to appoint a board to manage the schools 
and to report to them.^ The first plan has now everywhere 

^ Pennsylvania cities form excellent examples of this. Buffalo and 
Chicago are other good examples of early district organization. 

* Columbus, Cincinnati, and St. Louis illustrate this type. 
3 Buffalo, from 1839 to 1914. 

* Cleveland's first charter (1836) provided for the appointment annually, 
by the city council, of a board of managers of common schools, and gave 
the council power to determine the funds needed. The school board was 
thus little more than a subcommittee of the city council. This condition 



78 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

been abandoned, the cities of Pennsylvania being the last 
to give it up, and the second is now the almost universal 
practice. In some of our older Eastern cities what later 
evolved into public education was begim by school societies, 
and was only gradually assumed by the public. When the 
schools were finally taken over, however, they were placed 
under city boards of education which were granted all of 
the powers which the school committees of Massachusetts 
had come into possession of as a result of two centuries of 
slow evolution. 

The separate school board. Early in the second quarter 
of the nineteenth century the idea of a separate board in 
cities, for the management of the public school system main- 
tained, may be said to have become an accepted principle 
in our local government, and practically all powers of school 
control, aside from the voting of funds, now rested with 
such boards. All of the many powers evolving out of the 
side of school control represented by the early town vote to 
choose a teacher had now passed from the people to such a 
board, as had also some of the functions evolving out of the 
other vote to establish and maintain a school. The State, 
by general or special law, or by means of city charters, now 
laid down certain general rules which must be followed, and 
made certain (demands which must be met. Within such 
limits as these laws imposed the board, as a unit, exercised 
all of the general and specific duties of school control. 
They also legislated for the schools and then executed, 
through their own officers, — president, secretary, or clerk, 
• — or through the masters or the head masters of the school, 
the legislation which they had formulated. As time went 
by, and public education for all became a recognized func- 

continued until 1859, when special legislation was secured from the State 
which provided for the election of a city board of education, by the people 
and along ward lines. 



EVOLUTION OF CITY ORGANIZATION 79 

tion of the State, the duties of administration and control 
devolving on such boards naturally increased. 

Development of the ward and committee systems. In 
cities where the ward or district unit of organization became 
prominent, a subdivision of the increasing duties was made 
on the basis of ward or district lines. The central board ex- 
amined teachers, selected textbooks, visited the schools, and 
exercised general supervision over them, while the trustees 
for each district employed the teachers for that district, 
built and cared for the schoolhouses, and levied taxes for 
all purposes except for the pay of the teacher.^ Under this 
plan of district organization, sectional and local interests 
naturally attained great importance, great inequalities in the 
schools and in the burdens for their support existed, and 
the school systems resulting can hardly be said to have been 
much more, at first, than a loosely federated collection of 
local and contiguous schools. The system also resulted, 
by the addition of territory and the natural growth of the 
cities, in the development of large and unwieldy boards of 
education,^ more actuated by special interests than by the 

1 This was essentially the plan in operation in Chicago from the organi- 
zation of the city in 1835 to the consolidation of the school system into 
one city system, by the abolition of the districts, in 1857. Philitdelphia 
and Pittsburg had essentially this plan until 1905. 

2 A few examples will illustrate this: — 

Boston, in 1818, had a school committee (board) of 24. In that year 
primary schools were established, and a primary school board of three 
citizens was provided for each. By 1849 there were 214 board members 
serving the city. After reduction, in 1854, to 72 members, six for each of 
the twelve wards of the city, the number was again ^yicreased, by the 
annexation of new wards, to 116 by 1875, when the number was reduced 
by law to 24. The city now has a board of five. 

Cincinnati's board of education increased by a similar process from 10 
in 1837 to 50 in 1873. 

Philadelphia represents the most extreme case, the board being com- 
posed of six members from each ward, and, by the annexation of new 
territory, came to consist of 403 members by 1880, ^5 by 1889, 533 by 
1900, and 559 by 1905. In that year the number was reduced by state 
law to 21, and in 1911. to 15. 



80 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

general good of the city as a whole, and under which prog- 
ress of any kind became increasingly difficult. 

In other cities, not afflicted with the district system, a 
committee system was developed as a means of dividing 
among the members the administrative burdens arising from 
a rapidly expanding and developing school system. From 
a few committees at first the number was gradually in- 
creased, and to each was assigned, subject to the direction 
and approval of the whole board, the performance of certain 
specified duties, such as the employment or certification 
of teachers, the building or repair of schools, the approval 
of bills, the selection of textbooks, or the formulation of 
courses of study. A large and an increasing board conse- 
quently became an advantage, as it provided more members 
to transact the constantly increasing business. A dozen to 
a score of standing committees in time came to be not un- 
common, while Cincinnati at one period of its educational 
history came to have seventy-four different committees, and 
Chicago, seventy-nine. 

This committee form of school-board organization repre- 
sents the first stage in the process of separating the legisla- 
tive and the executive functions in the control of a city 
school system. 

Evolution of professional supervision. The next step in 
the process of separation was the evolution of the pro- 
fessional school superintendent, appointed or elected from 
without the board of education, and gradually entrusted 
with executive functions and directed to act in the name 
of the board. With the development and expansion of the 
school system of the cities, this step followed as naturally as 
did the evolution of the school committee or the board out 
of the selectmen or the town council at an earlier date. Our 
city school systems may be said to have reached this stage 
in their development by about 1875. 



i\mxmm*tft^ 



ll»f»lM 



Fig. 7. GROWTH OF A PROFESSIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

Showing the development of administration and the growth of sentiment toward central- 
ization as indicated by the number of articles on the subject in each number of the annual 
proceedin£?> of the National Teachers' Association and National Education Association — 
1857-1918. (After Chamberlain.) With the entry of the United States into the World War 
the attention of the Suoerintendents was directed elsewhere, as the chart shows 



EVOLUTION OF CITY ORGANIZATION 81 

The unmistakable tendency, once this oflScial was evolved, 
has been to delegate to him those professional functions 
relating to teachers and instruction, as well as many of the 
matters relating to buildings and equipment, the board 
reserving to itself advisory control, the power to enact 
general legislation, and the control of the finances of the 
schools. Just as the towns originally passed these functions 
over to special representative boards, with a view to secur- 
ing more intelligent action, so such boards have in turn 
passed these functions over to an expert officer, and with 
the same purpose in mind. 

The dates of the appointment of the first city superin- 
tendents of schools have been given, ^ and the statement 
was made there that their duties at first must have been 
quite simple and limited. Some of the first superintendents 
of city school systems were not even school men,^ and their 
duties were more those of a school-board clerk or business 
manager of to-day than those of a modern professional 
superintendent. Gradually, but slowly, with the growth of 
the cities, the widening sphere of public education, the in- 
crease in the complexity of the school system maintained, 
the increase in the number of superintendents employed, 
and the growth of a professional spirit among them,^ 

^ See page 58. 

2 Cleveland first designated the secretary of the school board as "acting 
manager of schools," and he continued in this capacity for twelve years 
before a real superintendent of schools was elected. In Jersey City the 
office was for some time an unsalaried one, and was held by merchants and 
other business men, who performed merely nominal duties. Cincinnati at 
first elected a superintendent from among the citizenship, and by popular 
vote, just as members of the school board were secured. 

^ The National Association of School Superintendents was organized in 
1865, and held its first meeting in Washington in February, 1866. This 
organization later became the Department of Superintendence of the 
National Education Association, and has continued to the present time. 
Most of the important discussions of supervisory problems have taken 
place before this body. 



82 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

boards of education began to decrease the number, impor- 
tance, and activity of the standing and special commit- 
tees, and to direct the new superintendent of schools either 
to investigate conditions and needs and to report to them 
with recommendations for action, or to act in their name. 

Further differentiation of executive functions. With the 
still more rapid growth of cities since 1880, and the still 
more rapid expansion of our city school systems since that 
date, even further specialization of functions and delega- 
tion of authority has become a necessity, if intelligent edu- 
cational service is to be rendered to the community sup- 
porting the schools. The problems relating to organization, 
instruction, and school management have become far too 
technical to be handled successfully by the ordinary layman, 
while the business and clerical work has so increased in 
quantity as to demand the continuous services of an officer 
specially capable in such lines. Even more, the problems 
relating to instruction and school organization have in 
themselves so differentiated as to require, in our larger 
cities, a division of executive functions among a number of 
specially trained educational officers. 

Large boards, ward control, and the committee system of 
school administration have all alike proved so inadequate 
and so unsatisfactory, under modern conditions of school 
organization and administration, that there has been a 
marked tendency, within the past quarter of a century, 
toward a very material reduction both in the size of city 
school boards and in the number of their standing com- 
mittees. There has also been a marked tendency toward 
the delegation to expert officers, not members of the board, 
of many of the powers and executive functions formerly 
possessed and exercised by the city school boards. Some- 
times this has come about by tacit understanding, and 
sometimes by the requirements of general law. 



EVOLUTION OF CITY ORGANIZATION 83 

The result has been the evolution of what might be 
called a comprehensive type of school superintendent in our 
smaller cities, and of a number of executive officers for our 
larger city school systems. In some of our cities and states 
these officers have been clothed by law with certain definite 
powers and duties with which boards of education cannot 
interfere, or at most over which they can exercise only a 
moderate supervisory authority. On the business side has 
been evolved the school clerk, or secretary, who attends to 
all purely clerical functions, and the business manager, who 
acts in the name of the board in most financial matters. On 
the educational side, in addition to the superintendent of 
instruction, have come supervisors of special forms of in- 
struction, a supervisor of health, and a supervisor of school 
attendance. In between the two, and partaking of the func- 
tions of both the business and the educational sides, has 
come a superintendent of school buildings. Other executive 
officials, of more or less importance in the educational 
administration, but not necessary to enumerate here, have 
also been evolved to meet special needs in different city 
school systems. 

Present conceptions as to school control. The marked 
trend of the past quarter of a century in city school admin- 
istration has been to increase the importance of the board 
of education as a legislative body, to decrease its impor- 
tance as an executive body, and to centralize authority and 
responsibility in the hands of one or more well-trained 
and capable executive officers, with the city superintendent 
of schools as the directing and coordinating head of the exec- 
utive organization. These executive officers are responsible 
to the board, and the board in turn to the people. The func- 
tion of a city board of education has become, more and more, 
to act as a board for school control, — representing the 
people on the one hand and the State on the other. Its 



84 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

powers in the matter of finance and building have been 
materially enlarged; its powers to legislate and direct, 
within the Hmits set by general law, have likewise been 
expanded; and to it, in conjunction with the superintendent 
of schools, has been given the task of determining the local 
educational policy relating to public education. In the ex- 
ecution of the legislation or of the policy determined upon, 
however, it has come to be conceived, more and more clearly, 
to be in the interests of efficient administration for the board 
to leave all executive functions to carefully chosen execu- 
tive officers, who act as its representatives. In this regard 
the evolution of city school control has kept in touch with 
the best principles of corporation management and control. 
It is at this point in the evolution of city school organi- 
zation and administration that we take up the problem for 
more detailed consideration. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Burnham, W. H. "Principles of Municipal School Administration"; in 
Atlantic Monthly, vol. 92; pp. 105-12. (July, 1903.) 

Economy; school politics; local adaptation; autonomy; expert administration; civil 
service; concentration of power and responsibility. 

Chamberlain, A. H. Growth of Responsibility and Enlargement of Power of 
the City School Superintendent. 162 pp. Univ. Cal. Pubs.; Edtication, 
vol. Ill, no. 4, 1913. 

Section 4, pp. 362-395, cover the beginnings and the expansion of the city office. 

Hinsdale, B. A. "The American School Superintendent"; in Educational 
Review, vol. vii, pp. 42-54. (January, 1894.) 
A good general article on the evolution of supervision. 
Martin, G. H. Evolution of the Massachusetts School System. 284 pp. 
Appleton, New York, 1894. 

A very readable volume. Traces the main lines of the evolution of educational ad- 
ministration in Massachusetts. 

Prince, J. T. "Evolution of School Supervision"; in Educational Review, 
vol. 22, pp. 148-61. (September, 1901.) 

A brief general article, dealing with the evolution in Massachusetts. 
Suzzallo, Henry. Rise of Local School Supervision in Massachusetts. 154 pp. 
Trs. Col. Contribs. to Educ, no. 3. New York, 1906. 

An excellent study of the rise of the school committee and the general transference of 
power from the people to a special representative board in matters relating to education. 



CHAPTER VIII 

ORGANIZATION OF BOARDS FOR SCHOOL CONTROL 

Special governing boards. Special school boards for the 
control of the educational systems of our cities are to-day 
an almost universal feature of city-district school organi- 
zation. While the term " board of education " is the most 
common designation for such a body, the term " school 
committee " (New England), " school board " (Minnesota), 
" board of school directors " (Pennsylvania; Oregon), 
" board of school trustees " (Indiana; Montana), " board 
of school commissioners " (Baltimore; Indianapolis), and 
** board of school inspectors " (Peoria) are also used.i 

There is no generally established method for the creation 
of such boards, some being elected by wards, some elected 
at large, some appointed by the mayor or some other ap- 
pointive body, and some owing their existence to special 
charters. 2 Many boards are large; some are small. Some 

* Practically all of these titles, and very naturally, are expressive of the 
earlier conception as to the nature of the functions to be exercised by gov- 
erning boards for schools in cities. In the light of our best present-day con- 
ceptions as to the nature of the work of such governing bodies, the term 
"board for school control" would be a better one for future use, for the 
reason that it expresses more accurately the real function of a school 
board in any city where modern conceptions as to its work prevail. The 
term "board of education" has gradually become a misnomer, and its use 
tends to continue, in the minds of both board members and the people, a 
conception that it is the function of such bodies to continue to attempt to 
exercise technical and professional functions which ordinary laymen are 
no longer competent to handle. 

^ Such special charters were quite common once, when some communities 
Hesired to progress and others did not, but few such are granted now, while 
many States prohibit such special legislation. Georgia forms an excellent 
illustration of such grants, almost every city of any size in the State having 
at some time been granted a special educational charter. Four counties — 



86 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

still retain the old committee system in full strength; some 
have only a few committees; while a few have abolished 
standing committees entirely. Some are both legislative and 
executive bodies, the superintendent of schools being much 
in the nature of a clerk to the board; some divide the ex- 
ecutive functions to a greater or less degree with this official; 
while a few cities have clearly separated the executive from 
the legislative functions, and entrust all of the former to 
paid experts, the board acting entirely as a board of control 
for the school system of the city district. 

Recent reorganizations. So rapid has been the growth of 
our cities, and so recent has been the more complex develop- 
ment of public education and the appointment of profes- 
sional experts to advise and to direct, that practically all of 
our cities, up to a relatively few years ago, possessed an 
educational organization much better adapted to the time 
when they were villages and when education was a relatively 
small and simple affair, than to needs and conditions now 
existing in a growing American city. Perhaps a large ma- 
jority of our cities are still in this condition. Progress in 
education has outrun the development of the governing law. 

Within the past two decades, however, a number of our 
cities, large and small, have effected voluntary or compul- 
sory educational reorganizations, with a view to adapting 
better the administration of their school systems to the needs 
of the future in matters of educational organization and 
administration.^ Such reorganizations have come, in large 

Bibb, Chatham, Glynn, and Richmond — have special county school 
systems, which include the cities, towns, and rural districts, and which are 
largely independent of the state school laws. In Bibb County the board 
consists of fifteen members, and itself fills all vacancies in its membership. 
The St. Louis board also had this power from 1833 to 1897. 

^ The following, among our larger cities, illustrate this tendency: — 
St. Louis, in 1897, changed from a ward board of 21 to one of 12 elected 
from the city at large, and with the powers of the board and of its executive 
officers clearly defined. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 87 

part, as the result of the gradual establishment of certain 
standards relating to the organization and work of city 
boards of education, and the relationship such bodies should 
bear to their executive ojfficers and to the general city gov- 
ernment. 

In this chapter we shall briefly indicate the nature of such 
reorganizations, and state what these standards are with 
reference to the legal organization of the board for city 
school control; in the following chapter we shall state what 
they are as they relate to the work and proper functions of 
the board. 

Tendencies in recent reorganizations. As was pointed out 
in the previous chapter, the tendency has been, with the 
evolution of the professional superintendent and the dele- 
gation of administrative functions to experts, to reduce the 
size of the board, to curtail both the number and the work 
of the board committees, and to eliminate all ex-offido 
members from the board. By this means the board is re- 
duced to a small and businesslike body, and transformed 
into a real board for school control. 

Within recent years many of our city boards of education 
have been so reduced in size and the nimaber of their stand- 
ing committees decreased, with a view to securing a bet- 
ter educational organization for the administration of the 

San Francisco, in 1898, changed from a board of 12 elected along ward 
lines to one of 4 appointed by the mayor. 

Baltimore, in 1898, changed from a board of 28 elected along ward lines 
and with the mayor a member ex officio to a board of 7 appointed by the 
mayor. 

Rochester, in 1901, changed from a ward board of 16 to a board of 5 
elected at large. 

Boston, in 1905, changed from a ward board of 24 to one of 5 elected 
from the city at large. 

Philadelphia, in 1905, changed from a series of 43 elected district boards, 
consisting of 559 members, to a board of 21 members appointed from the 
city at large by the judges of the court of common pleas. In 1913, the 
board was further reduced by general state law to 15 members. 



88 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



CITY 



Albany 

Bridgeport 

Spokaiue 

Cambridge 

Lowell 

^ashviUe 

Grand Rapids 

Dayton 

Fall River 

Omaiia 

Paterson 

Richmond 

Scranton 

Memphis 

Birmingham 

New Haven 

Syracuse 

"Worcester 

Oakland 

Atlanta 

Toledo 

Columbus 

Portland 

Denver 

St.Paul 

Rochester 

Louisville 

Providence 

Indianapolis 

Seattle 

Kansas City 

Jersey City 

Minneapolis 

lios Angeles 

Washington 

New Orleans 

Newark 

Cincinnati 

Milwaukee 

San Francisco 

Buffalo 

Detroit 

Pittsburgji 

Baltimore 

Cleveland 

Boston 

St.Loui8 

PhiladelpJaJa 

Chicago 

New York 



Population 

1910 



100, 
102, 
104. 
104, 
106, 
110, 
112, 
116, 
119. 
124. 
125, 
127, 
129, 
131, 
132, 
133, 
137. 
145, 
150, 
154, 
168. 
181, 
207, 
213, 
214, 
218, 
223, 
224, 
233, 
237, 
248 
267 
301, 
319, 
331, 
339, 
847 
363, 
373, 
416, 
423, 
465, 
533, 
558, 
560, 
670 
687, 
1,549 
2,185, 
4,766, 



253 
054 
,402 
,839 
294 
.364 
571 
,577 
295 
096 
,600 
,628 
867 
105 
685 
605 
249 
,986 
174 
839 
497 
,511 
214 
,381 
744 
149 
928 
326 
650 
194 
,381 
,779 
408 
198 
069 
075 
469 
591 
857 
912 
715 
766 
905 
,485 
663 
,585 
029 
008 
283 



SIZE OF BOARD 

forjnerly Now 



Change in 25 Tears 




Present size I I Decrease in 25 years ^^ Increase in 25 years 



Fig 8. TENDENCIES OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS (1895-1920) IN SCHOOL 
BOARD REORGANIZATIONS IN FIFTY CITIES 

As shown by the fifty cities in the United States which in 1910 had over 100,000 inhab- 
itants. It will be seen that there is no relation between the size of the city and the size of the 
school board. 



< 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 89 

schools. Sometimes these changes have come as a result of 
the people of the city asking for an amended charter or a 
special law.^ Most of the earlier reorganizations came about 
in this way. More recently the tendency has been for the 
State, by means of a general state law, and without waiting 
for the cities to act voluntarily, to compel a reduction in 
size and a change in the basis of selection of board members 
for all cities of the State, doing so in the interests of a more 
efficient administration of the schools in the city school 
districts. 2 Some of the changes produced by these recent 
general laws have been large, and thoroughly fimdamental 
in nature.^ Some of these recent laws have even Hmited and 
specified the number of standing committees which may be 
created, and, most important of all, have clearly stated that 

* As, for example, Cleveland, which substituted a board of 7 elected at 
large, for a large ward board in 1892; Newark, which reduced its board 
from 32 to 9 in 1908; San Diego, California, which substituted a board of 
5, elected at large, for a ward board of 18 in 1909; Newton, Massachusetts, 
which reduced its board from 15 to 8 in 1910; New Orleans, from 17 to 5 in 
1912; and Cincinnati, from 29 to 7 in 1913. 

2 Under such general state laws the school board of Indianapolis was 
reduced from 11 to 5, and Louisville from 16 to 5. Kansas, in 1911, by 
general law reduced all school boards in cities of over 2000 inhabitants to 6, 
to be elected at large; and Ohio, in 1913, reduced all city boards of educa- 
tion to 5 or 7 members. 

3 In Ohio, as a result of general laws of 1904, 1908, and 1913, school 
boards of 15 to 27 have been reduced to 5 or 7. 

The most marked reduction has come as a result of the Pennsylvania 
state law of 1911, whereby all cities were classified, and the size of their 
boards determined, as follows : — 

Class Population of City Size of Board 

1 500,000 and over 15 

2 30,000 to 499,999 9 

3 5,000 to 29,999 7 

4 Under 5000 5 

This law also abolished the district system of representation, and sub- m 

stituted appointment by the judges in the two first-class cities, and election !|| 

at large elsewhere. The result of this law was to reduce the board of educa- ' 

lion in Philadelphia from 24, and in Pittsburgh from 45, to 15 each; and 
in Harrisburg from 32, in Reading from 64, and in Williamsport from 52, 
to 9 each. 



90 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

certain executive functions must be delegated to specified 
executive officers to be appointed by the board. ^ 

As a result of the discussion, legislation, and experience 
of the past two decades in city school organization and 
administration, it may be said that the best type of board 
for educational control in our American cities, large or 
small, now seems to be a small board — five or seven mem- 
bers being the most desirable numbers — with no ex-officio 
members ;2 elected from the city at large, or, perhaps, ap- 
pointed by the mayor, or commission for the city; elected for 
relatively long terms, with only a small percentage elected 
or appointed at any one time, and with not too long con- 
tinuous service for any one member; few or no standing 
conmaittees; and with a clear differentiation stated in the 
law between the legislative functions of the board and the 
executive functions of the experts of the department. The 
reasons for the impositions of such standards in the organiza- 
tion of boards of school control for city school districts are 
about as follows : — 

Size of school boards. The experience of the past half- 
century, in city school administration in this country, is 
clearly and unmistakably that a small board is in every 
way a more effective and a more efficient body than a large 
one. It of course should not be too small, as very small 

^ The St. Louis law is a good example of this. But four board com- 
mittees are provided for, namely, — Instruction, School Buildings, Finance, 
and Auditing and Supplies. Five executive departments are also provided 
for, and the powers and duties of each clearly specified. The administration 
is businesslike, and the legislative and executive fimctions clearly differ- 
entiated. 

2 It used to be a somewhat conmaon practice to include the mayor, 
ex officio, as a member of the board of education, but the plan has almost 
invariably given poor results, and has been abandoned generally. The 
temptation to the mayor, who is primarily a political personality, is always 
strong to play poUtics at the expense of the schools, and the ehmination 
of this official is a necessary step in the elimination of politics from the 
administration of public education. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 



91 



boards tend too much to become one-man affairs, and the 
gain that comes from having a number of heads consider and 
discuss a proposition is lost. On the other hand, a few men 
can always work more economically and more efficiently 
than can a large body. The unquestioned experience of our 
American cities, having large school boards or city councils, 
has been that the real thinking and planning and executing 
is usually done by from half a dozen to half a score of men 
within the group. The inevitable result is cliques, factions. 



I. 


Cities of over 100,000 inhabitants 


Size of Board 


Number of Cities 


Graphic Distribution 





1 


B 


8 


1 


■ 


6 


14 




6 


1 


■ 


7 


10 




9 


10 




11 


8 


■■■ 


12 


S 


■■ 


14 


S 


Bum 


15 


8 


i^m 


16 


1 


m 


17 


1 


■ 


Median 


7 


tma^^m 



II. Cities of from 25,000 to 100.000 inhabitants 



8 
5 
6 

7 
8 


7 
27 
11 
26 

4 


maamtm 




mmm ""^ ■ 


9 


89 




10 


6 




11 


2 


Hi 


12 


10 




14 


2 


■■ 


16 


1 


■ 


17 


S 


■■1 


18 


I 


■ 


21 


^ 


■ 


Median 


7 


l^^B^^^^^ 



Pig. 9. FREQUENCY OF SIZE OF SCHOOL BOARD 

Given for two groups of cities. The upper half of the chart shows the distribution for the 
60 cities which in 1910 had over 100,000 inhabitants; the lower half for the 139 cities which 
by the same census had between 25,000 and 100,000 inhabitants. 



92 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

and wheels within wheels in the administration. A board 
of five or seven is now generally regarded as the most desir- 
able size for all but perhaps the very largest cities, and 
with from nine to fifteen proposed for such large cities as 
Chicago and New York. 

The small board is far less talkative, and hence handles 
the public business much more expeditiously; it is less able 
to shift responsibility for its actions; it cannot so easily di- 
vide itseK up into small committees, and works more effi- 
ciently and intelligently as a committee of the whole; and 
it cannot and will not apportion out the patronage in the 
way that a large ward board can and will do. A large board 
is unwieldy and incoherent; it seldom transacts the pubhc 
business quietly and quickly; it tends too frequently to be- 
come a public debating society, where small or politically 
inclined men talk loud and long and " play to the galleries " 
and to the press; while personal and party politics, and 
sometimes lodge and church poKtics, not infrequently de- 
termine its actions. It is almost always divided into fac- 
tions, between whom there is continual strife and rivalry, 
and important matters are usually caucused in advance and 
" put through " by the majority at that moment in control. 
A reduction in size to a body small enough to meet around 
a single table and discuss matters in a simple, direct, and 
business-like manner, under the guidance of a chairman 
who knows how to handle public business, and then take 
action as a whole, is very desirable.^ 

Basis of selection; wards vs. at large. The election of 
school-board members from city wards or districts is a sur- 
vival of the early district system of school control, and the 

^ With such a board, long evening meetings are unnecessary. K the 
board confines itseK to its proper work, an hour a week will transact all of 
the school business which the board should handle. There is no more need 
for speeches or oratory in the conduct of a school system than there would 
be in the conduct of a national bank. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 93 

evidence everywhere is against the continuance of this 
practice. No surer means for perpetuating the personal and 
political evils in school control can be devised than the con- 
tinuance of the ward system of representation. In cities 
where part of the school board has been elected at large and 
part by wards, those elected at large have almost invariably 
proved to be the better members. In cities where the com- 
plete change from a ward board to a smaller one elected at 
large has been made, the change has practically always re- 
sulted in the production of a better board from among the 
body of the electorate, and a better handling of the business 
of public education. The larger the city the more important 
that the ward system be abandoned. 

The tendency of people of the same class or degree of 
success in life to settle in the same part of the city is matter 
of common knowledge. The successful and the unsuccessful; 
the ones who like strong and good government, and the ones 
who like weak and poor government; the temperate and the 
intemperate elements; and the business and the laboring 
classes; — these commonly are found in different parts of 
a city. Wards come to be known as " the fighting third," 
*' the red-light fourth," " the socialistic ninth," or " the 
high-brow fifth "; and the characteristics of these wards ^ are 

1 The writer once knew a ward board composed of one physician, two 
business men, one good lawyer, two politician lawyers with few clients, one 
bookkeeper, one blacksmith, one saloonkeeper, one buyer of hides and 
tallow, one butcher, one druggist, one worker in a lumber yard, one retired 
army oflBcer, one man of no occupation except general opposition to any 
form of organized government, and one woman. The result was a board 
divided into factions, members from the better wards having but little in- 
fluence with those from the poorer wards. The constant danger was that 
the less intelligent and less progressive element would wear out the better 
element and come to rule the board. Important measures had to be cau- 
cused in advance of proposing them to see that a majority was a probability. 
In appointing the committees, the chairman had to choose between having 
half the board do all of the important work, or of placing men on com- 
mittees for which they were wholly unfitted. 



94 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



frequently evident in the composition of the board of edu- 
cation. The young and ambitious politician not infre- 
quently moves into an " open ward " in the hope of securing 
an election there, and, when elected, makes the school 
board a stepping-stone to the council and higher political 



5 



Higher ground 

© 

residence 




Fia. 10. A CITY OF NINE WARDS 

The three wards south of the river contain the poorer classes of the city. Theee 
live in the cheap homes south of the railway tracks. Wards 1, 4, and 7 lie on higher 
ground, and the better residences of the city are in these three wards and in the 
upper edge of Wards 2, 5, and 8. The business district of the city parallels the river, 
and lies in Wards 2, 5, and 8. 

Wards 1, 4, and 7 always select good members for the Board of Education, while 
Wards 3, 6, and 9 practically always select poor members. The fight then hinges 
around Wards 2, 5, and 8, the better element of the city being compelled to watch 
these wards carefully, so as to elect good men from at least two of these three wards. 

preferment. Not infrequently the school janitor, appointed 
in the first place as a reward for political services, becomes 
the ward boss in turn and dictates the nomination of the 
school-board members. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 95 

One of the important results of the change from ward 
representation to election from the city at large, in any city 
of average decency and intelligence, is that the inevitable 
representation from these " poor wards " is eliminated, and 
the board as a whole comes to partake of the best charac- 
teristics of the city as a whole. The members represent the 
city as a whole, instead of wards; they become interested in 
the school system as a unit, instead of parts of it; and the 
continual strife in boards caused by men who represent a 
constituency instead of a cause, and whose efforts are con- 
stantly directed toward securing funds, teachers, and jani- 
tors for the school or schools " they represent," is largely 
eliminated. 

Under the ward system of representation, too, it is 
matter of common knowledge that men are nominated and 
elected from wards who could not be nominated, much less 
elected, from the city at large. Better men are almost al- 
ways attracted to the educational service when election from 
the city at large, and for relatively long terms, is substituted 
for ward representation. A man of affairs, really competent 
to handle the educational business of a city, often cannot 
be induced to accept membership on a large ward board 
because of the great waste of time and the small results 
attained. If the management of a school sj^stem is political, 
or personal, or petty, the best men tend to keep off the school 
board, which in turn accentuates the trouble and brings a 
constantly poorer quality of men to the service. 

Appointment vs, election. A plan tried in some of our 
cities, but one less in favor now than some years ago, is that 
of having the mayor of the city appoint the board members 
instead of their being elected. This plan has been especially 
favored for large cities. In small cities there is no question 
but that election at large by popular vote is the more de- 
sirable method, and even for large cities experience seems 



96 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

to indicate that the results are about equally satisfactory.* 
In Philadelphia appointment by the court of common pleas 
has been tried, but to this method there is much objection. 
The judges do not desire the responsibility, and it should not 
be put upon them. In a few of our commission-governed 
cities the city commission appoints the school board. 

So far as the objection to appointment by the mayor rests 
on the plea that it " removes the schools farther from the 
people " is concerned, the objection is of little weight. Our 
city executives are elected by and represent the whole 
people, and are usually very close to the people, at least to 
that class of the people who concern themselves most with 
city government, and they represent the average opinion of 
such very well. Too often this is one of the most serious ob- 
jections to such a method of appointment. If the mayor 
is of a distinctively high type, and deeply interested in the 
public welfare, he may make better appointments than the 
popular-election method will produce. Too often, however, 
the temptation to play city politics at the expense of the 
schools is irresistible, and the result on the schools is dis- 
astrous. 

In favor of appointment, over election at large, is the be- 
lief that the mayor can be held responsible for bad appoint- 
ments, and that he can select with greater care and without 
reference to where the appointee lives. Against such ap- 
pointment is the close personal relationship likely to exist 
between the mayor and the appointees; the sense of obliga^ 
tion resulting in a return of favors; the mixing of city gov- 
ernment and school government; the tendency of mayors to 
interfere with the administration of the schools; the likeli- 
hood of introducing city politics into appointments and the 

^ Election by the people and at large has certainly given better results 
in Boston, St. Louis, and Portland, Oregon, than has been the case under 
appointment by the mayor in New York, Chicago, or San Francisco. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 97 

awarding of contracts; and, in case of a bad mayor, the ease 
with which the school system may be demoraHzed. 

San Francisco, in 1921, began a trial of a combination 
method of appointment which may prove useful. Under it 
the mayor nominates the school board members, sixty days 
before the city election, and the people then vote, at large, 
to approve or to disapprove his nominees. 

Term of office, and elections. It used to be a common 
practice to elect the school committee or school board 
annually, and the survivals of this custom are still found in 
many of our cities. In a few the entire school board is 
elected annually or biennially, and in many cities half the 
members are elected at each annual or biennial election.^ 

Short terms of office and rapidly changing membership 
do not produce conditions conducive to good school ad- 
ministration, and do not attract the best men to the service. 
In cities where all or even a majority of a school board 
change at one time, neither the school board nor the super- 
intendent of schools can plan and execute any long-time 
educational policy; and both are forced to consider, al- 
together too much for the good of the schools, what it is 
expedient to do. Better men are attracted to the service by 
a longer term of office and a relatively stable membership. 
The new member can be gradually initiated into the work 
and ideals of the board, and an educational policy can be 
planned and carried out over a longer period of time. 
School election contests, based on a desire to change the 
character of the administration, are much less frequent, and 
a radical change in educational policy scarcely ever results 
from one election. If the superintendent of schools is also 
given a relatively long term, the conditions are very favor- 
able for efficient and progressive educational administration. 

^ If one half are, theoretically, new at each election, practically a 
majority, due to deaths or resignations, has to be elected each time. 



98 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

From three to five years would seem to be the most de- 
sirable length of term for school-board membership. Where 
the board consists of three or five, one should be elected 
each year, and for a three- or a five-year term. In case of a 
board of seven, the election of one, two, two, and two each 
succeeding year would seem most desirable. The larger the 
membership, the longer should be the tenure. 

It will at once be objected that city or state elections 
usually come only biennially, and that an annual election 
of school-board members is therefore impossible. Such ob- 
jections usually come from the man who is not interested in 
making it possible. The divorce of school-board elections 
from city or state political contests is in itself very desir- 
able, and this is done in a number of cities. Such board 
members should be elected at a spring school election, con- 
ducted in a simple manner at the schoolhouses and without 
reference to the AustraHan system of balloting, and names 
should be placed on the ballot without party or other desig- 
nation. If more than one person is to be voted for for the 
same place, say three, the position of any one name should 
be different on each third of the ballots. Such elections are 
conducted in many places in a simple, inexpensive, and 
thoroughly satisfactory manner.^ 

Pay for services. A few communities pay their board 
members either a per-diem or a yearly fixed sum. Five or 
ten dollars a meeting, and the number of meetings limited 
to four or five a month, is occasionally found. A fixed sum, 
such as $100 a year, is also occasionally found. Rochester, 

^ The confusion of the city school-district organization with that of 
the city municipal government is in large part responsible for this idea 
that the elections must be held at the same time, and by the same methods. 
In Portland, Oregon, for example, where the school-district government 
has been kept clear and distinct from the city-hall government, the school 
elections have been held quietly each June, irrespective of the biennial city 
election in May. A number of California cities now follow the same plan. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 99 

in its reorganization of 1901, provided for a yearly salary of 
$1200 a year for each board member, and San Francisco, in 
the reorganization of 1898, provided for a board of four 
members, to be paid $3000 each, and required to devote their 
entire time to the work of the school board. In a bill before 
the New York Legislature of 1911 for the reorganization 
of the New York City school board, but which brought forth 
bitter opposition and finally failed of passage, it was pro- 
posed to reduce the school board from forty-six to seven in 
number, the president to be paid $10,000 a year, and each 
of the members $8000. This was much the same plan as was 
followed in San Francisco to 1922. In the controversy over 
this proposal the fundamental principles underlying paid 
and unpaid boards were fully brought out.^ 

It may be accepted as a fundamental principle in Ameri- 
can educational administration that a school board should 
not be paid for its services. In all of our cities there has 
never been any difficulty in securing the services of an 
unpaid board, and there is not likely to be. Our schools lie 
so close to the interests and hopes of parents and public- 
spirited citizens that there is not likely to exist, once 

^ See especially seven letters between Mayor Gaynor and President 
Nicholas Murray Butler on the subject, reprinted in the Educational Review 
for September, 1911 (vol. xlii, pp. 204-10), and the letter of Mr. C. W. 
Bardeen, of Syracuse, to the President of the Public Education Association 
of New York, reprinted in the same journal for October, 1911 (vol. xlii, 
pp. 322-24). 

Mr. Bardeen, among other things, said: — 

"The only object of the paid board of education, as the proposed pro- 
visions show, is to substitute its authority for the authority now vested in 
the superintendent; in other words, to substitute the amateur for the 
expert; the theorist for the man who has tried; the lawyer, the merchant, 
the physician, for men who have had equally long and severe training in the 
business of teaching. Mayor Gaynor would not think of proposing a judi- 
ciary board made up of leading public men who should dictate to the supe- 
rior court judge what his decisions should be, and yet the superintendents 
of New York are quite as expert in their subject and chosen quite as care- 
fully as the justices of the supreme bench." 



100 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

make the conditions and the office right, any trouble in en- 
listing the cooperation of men and women who will be 
willing to serve the schools, for a term of years, without 
any pay. 

Origin of pay proposals. All proposals to pay members 
come from other than students of educational administra- 
tion. It is not the lack of pay which keeps those best quali- 
fied to serve off our school boards, while even a small salary 
attached to the office makes it attractive to just the type of 
man who ought not to be selected for board member at all. 
A salary is all the more dangerous an incentive where the 
people elect the board members. 

Practically all proposals to attach a salary to the office of 
a school-board member are based on a complete misunder- 
standing as to what are the proper functions of a city board 
for school control.^ These we shall elaborate in the succeed- 
ing chapter, but suffice it to say here that it is not the proper 
function of a school board to administer the schools in any 
detail, and there is no work which the members can do to 
earn any salary worth mentioning without interfering with, 
or doing over again, the work of the professional officer or 
officers of the school system. An ideal board member is a 
man accustomed to handle business matters promptly, to 
consider the recommendations of superintendents, princi- 
pals, and business officers in a broad and unbiased manner, 
and to pass judgment on affairs of expenditure or policy. 
Such men do not serve for pay, nor will they devote all of 
their time to the business of the schools. A per-diem basis 
of pay tends to multiply meetings, and leads to the exer- 
cise of functions which boards should let alone; while an 
annual salary of any size tends to make the office a job, 
fills the board with a mediocre membership, and leads to 

^ This is well shown in Mayor Gaynor's letters. He entirely miscon- 
ceived the function of a board of education. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 101 

unnecessary interference with the proper work of the board's 
executive officers.^ 

Commission form of govenmient and the schools. A new 
departure in the administration of city school systems has 
recently been made in a few of our cities where the commis- 
sion form of government has been introduced. In some of 
these the board of education for the city school district has 
been abolished, and the school system has been incorporated 
as a department of the commissioned-governed city. In 
such cases either one commissioner exercises a special super- 
vision over the school department, or the city commission- 
ers pass upon school matters as a body. In some other cities 
the board of education is retained, the commissioners for 
the city merely succeeding the people or the mayor in the 
one function of appointing the board, and perhaps also in 
determining the amount of school fimds to be placed under 
its control. 

That there is a tendency toward the simplification of city 
government, and the placing of all city departments under 
one small board of control, is unmistakable. The inclusion 
of the schools as one of the departments of the commission- 
governed city seems a perfectly logical thing to do, but, not- 
withstanding a few apparently successful experiments here 
and there, 2 it is nevertheless as yet a somewhat question- 
able proceeding. Whatever the future may bring forth in 

^ San Francisco has proved to be an excellent example of this. There 
the board of education has become virtually a board of superintendents, 
reducing the proper supervisory force to the rank of clerks. This situation 
developed almost from the first. See "School Situation in San Francisco," 
in Edticational Review, April, 1901 (vol. xxi, pp. 364-83). 

2 Sacramento, California, a city of 65,000 inhabitants, is an example of 
this type. An elected city commission of five governs the city, one of whom 
is the commissioner for schools. This commission has so far, by employing 
a new superintendent and inaugurating a new progressive policy, done 
much to improve the schools, but the election of a new commissioner of a 
different type might at once jeopardize much of what has been secured 
by the recent reform. 



102 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the matter of improving mmiicipal admLinistration, we as a 
people have not, as yet, attained to the conception of the 
purpose of pubhc education and the standards in its admin- 
istration which would make the turning-over of the schools 
to the control of the city government a wise thing to do.^ 

If the commission control extends only to the appoint- 
ment of the school board, action by the commission taking 
the place of popular election or appointment by the mayor, 
and to the replacing of the city council in the determination 
of the school-board funds, ^ then the plan, instead of being 
objectionable, may be quite commendable. In these two 
matters of administration the commission form of govern- 
ment is very likely to result in an improvement in educa- 
tional administration, but in most other respects the school 
system is more likely to prosper if operated by a separate 
small board of control, and under the provisions of the 
general educational law of the State. 

Dependence on vs. independence of the city govern- 
ment. In the present stage of the development of munici- 
pal government the student of educational administration 
is thankful that the schools are, at their foundation at least, 
state and not local affairs, and that a constantly growing 
body of school law regulates and controls many of the de- 
tails of the conduct of the schools within the cities. As was 
pointed out in Chapter VI, the chief danger in such con- 
trol lies in that the state oversight may become too narrow 
and too restrictive in matters where local Hberty should be 
granted. 

The most important work of any coromimity is that of 
providing public education for its children. In its deeper 
significance this work completely transcends in importance 

1 This is discussed again in Chapter XXV, under the head of the tax- 
levj-ing power. 

2 This is essentially the Houston, Texas, plan. See the article by Horn, 
in Educational Review, April, 1909. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 103 

the work of the street, police, fire, or any other city admin- 
istrative department. It looks primarily to the future, 
rather than to the present, and its aim is clearly to improve 
upon conditions now existing. It is chiefly because of this 
larger and more distant aim of education that the work of 
the schools is so frequently misunderstood by the people. 

The ordinary citizen and the schools. The ordinary citi- 
zen, the average lawyer, the city official, and all who like to 
see a logical city administrative organization, find it hard 
to understand why students of educational administration 
object to such a logical subordination of the schools.^ 
With them the school service is regarded as practically on 
the same plane as other municipal service. Consequently 
contracts should be properly distributed locally, and jobs 
should be properly passed around among the daughters of 
the electorate. The meaning of competency in school work 
is scarcely understood, and the poor teacher or janitor has 
a large hold on their sympathy. That the result is deaden- 
ing and disastrous to the finer work of the schools, that the 
teachers and administrative officers do not do their best 
work under such conditions, and that the intellectual life 
and moral tone of the city is lowered in consequence, they 
cannot see. 

That plundering the schools is not on a par with plunder- 
ing the public treasury they also cannot see. If money is 
illegally or unnecessarily taken from the public treasury the 
tax rate is only raised a little. In time, if the mismanage- 
ment becomes too bad, the grand jury investigates, there 
is a municipal house cleaning, the charter or the form of 
government is perhaps changed, and all is well once more. 
If the schools, however, are plundered through contracts 
and building operations and degraded by the employment 

1 This was clearly apparent in the Butler-Gaynor letters, to which ref- 
erence has previously been made. 



104 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

and retention of incompetent place-hunters, the penalty is 
not only a higher tax rate, but a lower moral tone and a 
weakened intellectual life for the city, the influence of which 
extends throughout the whole of the life of the generation of 
children then in the schools. This, also, the ordinary lawyer, 
mayor, or " man in the street " does not see, and can 
scarcely be made to appreciate. Because the student of 
educational administration does appreciate these differences, 
and because he knows, from the experience of cities gener- 
ally, how easy it is to subordinate educational efficiency to 
political expediency, he does not favor any more connec- 
tions between the city government and the school depart- 
ment than is absolutely necessary. Laws that put the 
school department at the mercy of the city council are un- 
sound in principle, and frequently lead to deplorable results. 

Disadvantages of city control. The school boards of our 
cities almost always lay larger claim to character, fitness, 
and disinterestedness than do members of the city council 
in the same city, and, as a rule, they are far more respect- 
able and responsible.-^ One important step in the elimina- 
tion of politics from city school administration is the almost 
complete separation of the school department from the 
municipal government. 

Subordination to the mayor also frequently leads to a 
similar situation. Not many mayors are wise enough to 
keep their hands off the school department, and any school 
system in which the board members need to consult the 
mayor before taking important action is one in which the 
educational policy is likely to be both vacillating and weak. 
On the other hand, the school board which can act inde- 
pendently of municipal control, consulting only the edu- 
cational needs of the school district, and can, within the 

1 See A. S. Draper, "Plans for Organization for School Purposes in Large 
Cities," in Educational Review, June, 1893. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 105 

limits set by law, certify or levy the funds needed for school 
maintenance, is a board which is likely to carry forward a 
strong and a continuously progressive educational policy, 
and one likely to develop a school system which will render 
valuable service in improving the intelligence and the moral 
tone of the community. 

Both types of administrative organization for the school 
departments are represented in our American cities.^ 
Toledo, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Portland (Oregon), or Los 
Angeles represents the type of separate organization.^ In 
each the school system is a separate and distinct organi- 
zation, has its own funds, looks after its own plant, and 
manages its schools in the interests of the education of its 
children. Providence, Schenectady, Baltimore, and San 
Francisco offer examples of the close city-control type, 
the school department being quite dependent on the city 
authorities for its funds, and upon other city departments 
for semi-educational service. This dependence, in so far as 
it relates to finances, will be considered further in Chap- 
ter XXV. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Why is action by the State in fixing, by general law, the size and 
method of selection of the board of education justified ? 

2. Why is a board small enough to meet around a single table more likely 
to transact the public business quietly and expeditiously than one where 
the members have separate tables or desks scattered about the room? 

3. In Indiana, for many years, the city council appointed the school 
boards, one member each year for a three-year term. This worked fairly 

^ At this point only the general proposition of city control is discussed, 
postponing to Chapter XXV the bearing of such control on the levying of 
taxes and the authorization of building expenses. 

2 For a description of the St. Louis organization, see article by C. W. 
Eliot, in Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1903, vol. ii, pp. 1356- 
62. The complex Schenectady organization is given in Report of U. S. 
Commissioner of Education, 1913, vol. i, pp. 99-100. The two make a good 
comparison in matters of educational organization. 



106 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION 

well there, but has since been abandoned by all the larger cities. What 

is your judgment as to this method, and why? 

4. What is your judgment as to the Sacramento method, and why? 

5. What is your judgment of the Houston method, and why? 

6. What is the fundamental defect in any such logical city organization 
for the work of the educational department as is represented by Sche- 
nectady or San Francisco? 

7. Is Draper's argument for separate organization for the schools sound? 

8. In a few of our cities local or district school boards exist, largely for 
local purposes, in addition to the central board of education. Read the 
article on " City Schools, Local Boards " in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Edu- 
cation, and state your opinion of the advisability of such boards, either 
for assisting in school control or for visitation. 

9. Would it be a good idea to permit boards of education to elect their suc- 
cessors, as is done somewhat commonly in college government? Why? 

10. Can a scheme be provided which will insure a city a school board of a 
type much in advance of the general tone and character of the city 
itself? If possible, how far would it be desirable to do so? 

11. Eliot says that after two terms there should be a break in membership; 
that is, after the completion of the second term, a member should be 
ineligible for membership until after a lapse of at least one year. Is 
this a good idea, or not? Why? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. What method is used in constituting city boards of education in your 
State? What is their present size and term, and what tendencies in 
school-board organization have been manifest in your State during 
the past two decades? 

2. Are school boards paid in your State? If so, how much, and with what 
results? 

3. After reading the articles by De Weese, The Dial, Jones and the dis- 
cussion following, Mowry, and Tufts, what is your judgment as to 
appointed or elected boards? 

4. After reading the Butler-Gaynor correspondence, the Bardeen letter, 
and the article describing the San Francisco situation, what is your 
judgment as to paying boards of education for their services? Why? 

5. Contrast the Schenectady organization, as outlined in the Report of the 
U. S. Commissioner of Education (1913, vol. i, pp. 99-100), with the 
St. Louis organization (Eliot) . Which is the more likely to produce good 
educational organization and administration, and why? 

6. Outline, in the form of a charter provision or a law, your ideas, as a 
result of the discussion of this chapter, as to the best plan for the or- 
ganization of a school board for some small or medium-sized city which 
you know. 



ORGANIZATION OF SCHOOL BOARDS 107 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

Bard, H. E. The City School District. 118 pp. Trs. Col. Contrib. to Educ, 
no. 28; New York, 1909. 

Chapter I, pp. 43-64, is on the work of boards of education, giving conditions found 
at the time. 

Butler-Gaynor. "Should New York City have a Paid Board of Educa- 
tion?" in Educational Review, vol. xlii, pp. 204-10. (September, 
1911.) 

Seven letters on the subject. The question is well stated. See also the Bardeen 
letter in the October issue of the same journal (pp. 322-24) and later comment in the 
November issue (pp. 429-31). 

Chancellor, W. E. Our Schools: their Administration and Supervision. 
434 pp. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1904. 

Chapter II is very good on the school board and its work. Gives many good illustra- 
tions. 

Chicago, Illinois. Report of the Educational Commission of. 248 pp. Chicago, 
1899. Reprinted by the University of Chicago Press. 

Article I deals with the fundamental principles relating to the organization of the 
board of education. An important document. 

Cubberley, E. P. "The School Situation in San Francisco"; in Educational 
Review, vol. xxi, pp. 364-83. (April, 1901.) 

Describes the situation in a city where the school department is a part of the munic- 
ipal administration, and the board of education is a paid body. 

De Weese, T. A. "Better city school administration"; in Educational 
Review, vol. xx, pp. 61-71. (June, 1900.) 
A good article on school-board organization. 
Dial, The. Editorial on "Elective School Boards"; reproduced in Educa- 
tional Review, vol. xxvii, pp. 537-40. (May, 1904.) 

A strong editorial on the meaning of an elected board in Chicago. Favors appoint- 
ment. 

Draper, A. S. " Plans of Organization for School Purposes in Large Cities"; 
in Educational Review, vol. vi, pp. 1-16. (June, 1893.) 
States the fundamental lines of administrative reform. An able article. 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. Administration of Public Education in the 
United States. 614 pp. Macmillan Co., New York, 2d ed., 1908. 

Chapters VIII and IX contain a general discussion of the proper constitution and 
work of a school board. 

Eliot, Charles W. "A Good Urban School Organization"; in Report of U. S. 
Commissioner of Education, 1903, vol. ii, pp. 1356-62. 

Describes the reorganized St. Louis system. A good article, describing a system 
which operates independently of the municipal corporation. 

Eliot, E. C. "A Non-Partisan School Law"; in Proceedings of the National 
Education Association, 1905, pp. 223-231. 

A good article, describing the origin, establishment, and working of the St. Louis 
law. 



108 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Ellis, D. A. "A Decade of School Administration in Boston"; in Proceeds 

ings of the National Education Association, 1910, pp. 987-92. 

Describes reforms resulting from the reduction of the school board from twenty-four 
to five members. 

Horn, P. W. "City Schools under the Commission Form of City Govern- 
ment"; in Educational Review, vol. xxxvn, pp. 362-74. (April, 1909.) 
Describes the Houston, Texas, plan. 
Jones, L, H. "The Best Method of electing School Boards"; in Proceed- 
ings of the National Education Association, 1903, pp. 158-63. 
Good discussion follows paper, and a number of views are set forth. 
Mowry, D. "The Elective Board of Education"; in The Dial, vol. xxxiii, 
pp. 82-84. (August 16, 1902.) 

Favors popular election instead of mayor-appointed small boards, as advocated by 
Rollins. 

Nearing, S. "The Workings of a Large Board of Education"; in Educa- 
tional Review, vol. xxxviii, pp. 43-51. (June, 1909.) 

Contrasts Philadelphia with Albany, Rochester, and Boston. Shows the popular 
fallacy of large boards. 

Rollins, F. School Administration in Municipal Government. 106 pp. Col. 
Univ. Contribs. to Phil., Psy. and Educ, vol. xi, no. 1; New York, 
1902. 

Chapter 11 gives a general outline of existing conditions. Favors small boards, 
appointed by mayor for long terms. 

Strayer, G. D. "The Baltimore School Situation"; in Educational Review, 
vol. XLii, pp. 325^6. (November, 1911.) 

Describes a situation in a city where the schools are a part of the dty administrative 
organization. 

Tufts, J. H. "Appointive or Elective Boards of Education "; in School 
Review, vol. xvi, pp. 136-38. (February, 1908.) 

A good article. Opposes appointment for Chicago. Good statement on the subor- 
dination or independence of the school department. 



CHAPTER IX 

FUNCTIONS OF BOARDS FOR SCHOOL CONTROL 

The board as a body. The board for school control, how- 
ever constituted and by whatever official title it may be 
known, is the successor in point of authority of the old town 
or district meeting, in which the people met and represented 
themselves. There they voted taxes for the support of the 
school, selected a teacher or appointed a committee to do so 
for them, and then turned over to the teacher the control 
of the school. Later on they voted to delegate the testing of 
the qualifications of the teacher and the visitation of the 
school to those who could best represent their interests for 
them. 

Boards for school control in our cities to-day, as the suc- 
cessors of the town or district meeting, now represent the peo- 
ple in the matter of schools, and through such boards the 
people now exercise control over the education provided at 
public expense for their children. The school board members 
are merely citizens, selected as their representatives by the 
people of the community. As individuals they axe still citi- 
zens : only when the board is in formal session do they have 
any actual authority. 

It is the board, acting as a body, which in the name of the 
people controls the schools, and not the individual members 
who, when in session, compose it. Even when the board is 
in formal session, the individual members have only a voice 
and a vote, and their control over the schools is through the 
votes whereby rules, regulations, and policies are adopted. 
To have authority otherwise the authority must be expressly 



110 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMLNISTRATION 

delegated to a member by the board as a body, and by vote, 
and his authority then extends only so far as specified by 
such vote of the board. Members, to be sure, often attempt 
to exercise authority at other times, and frequently do so, 
but such authority is usurped authority and authority for 
which there is httle or no legal right. 

Boards continuous and changing. All boards for school 
control are, in the eyes of the law, continuous bodies. They 
are bodies corporate, have a seal, hold title to the school 
property, pass the title to their successors in office, may sell 
and legally deed property not needed for school purposes, 
and, in case a majority should at any time and for any cause 
cease to exist, the functions of the board are merely sus- 
pended but do not die. 

On the other hand, the board is kaleidoscopic. Both the 
personnel and the character of the board change rapidly. 
Often the best men in the community do not find their way 
to membership on it. Men of limited education and inex- 
perienced in school affairs, and with but little conception as 
to what constitutes good administration of public educa- 
tion, are constantly elected by the people to membership 
on the board. On assuming membership, conceiving that 
they have been elected to manage the schools, they pro- 
ceed to do so in a manner which accords well with their in- 
experience and lack of technical knowledge. The older mem • 
bers of the board and the superintendent of schools have t^ 
keep constantly in mind the slow education of the newcomer. 
The longer the term of office and the more gradual the 
replacement, the less the school administration of a city 
is disturbed by such changes in the representatives of the 
people. 

Types of school-board members. The city which keeps 
an able school board continuously in office is indeed fortu- 
nate. In most cities such boards alternate with poor boards; 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOARDS 111 

in some cities such boards scarcely exist at all. In most cities 
the board is a combination of diverse elements, and repre- 
sents, fairly well, the general average of intelligence of the 
electorate and the average conceptions of the people as to 
the administration of public education. A city school board 
composed of a machinist, a retired gentleman, a grocer, a 
shoe clerk, a real-estate agent, a druggist, a lumberyard 
foreman, a hotel-keeper, an old and busy lawyer, a book- 
keeper, a young lawyer without much business, and a 
banker, might be considered to be a board of the better 

type. 

All of these men are upright and honest citizens, inter- 
ested in schools and in the education of their children, and 
more or less successful in their different lines of work. The 
chief trouble with them is not their honesty or their general 
intelligence or their willingness to serve, but rather that they 
know so little about what constitutes good school adminis- 
tration that they are likely to think that, because they have 
children in the schools, they know all about how the schools 
should be conducted. Should they think so, as most new 
members on boards of education do, they are almost cer- 
tain to attempt what they are not competent to handle, and 
the result is both disastrous and pathetic. 

If, in place of five of the better members of the board 
described above, we substitute a teamster, a blacksmith, a 
saloon-keeper, a young politician with little or no visible 
means of support, and a crank with an educational hobby, as 
often happens as a result of city elections or appointments 
by mayors, we get a combination which is likely to do much 
to destroy the efficiency of a school system by turning it into 
a city patronage department, and by attempting to perform 
almost every technical and professional function which a 
board should leave to experts to perform. The superintend- 
ent resigns, the teachers who can get away do so, and the 



112 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



schools slowly deteriorate under such administrative con- 
ditions. 

The committee form of control. The most common means 
by which mismanagement and interference with the tech- 
nical and professional functions of the experts of the school 
department comes is through the attempt of such boards to 
manage the schools by means of a large number of standing 
committees.^ Committees commonly exist, such as those on 
courses of study, textbooks, instruction, and promotions and 
grading, which simply cannot exercise inteUigently any of 
the functions usually assigned to such bodies. The work at- 
tempted by such committees involves professional knowledge 
and judgment which no city board of education, either as a 
body or through a committee, ought ever to try to assume. 

Taking the board of the better type given above, let us 
distribute the membership among the different standing 
committees which we may assume such a board to have pro- 
vided for in its rules and regulations. Gi\'ing each man the 
chairmanship of one committee, which is a very common 
proceeding, and then distributing the members in order of 
number to complete the membership of each committee, we 
get the following result: — 



Committees 

1. Teachers and Instruction. 

2. Courses of Study. 

3. Textbooks and Apparatus. 

4. School Supplies. 

5. Buildings and Grounds. 



Membershi'p 

(1) Machinist, (2) retired gentleman, 

(3) grocer. 

(2) Retired gentleman, (4) shoe clerk, 

(5) real-estate agent. 

(3) Grocer, (6) druggist, (7) lumber- 

yard foreman. 

(4) Shoe clerk, (8) hotel-keeper, 

(9) busy la-n^'er. 

(5) Real-estate agent, (10) book- 

keeper, (11) young lawj'er. 



^ Bard, in his study of 112 school districts, found 976 standing com- 
mittees, or an average of nearly 9 to each city. Of these, 2o5 appeared only 
once, and 54 only twice in the 112 cities studied. 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOARDS 113 

Committees Membership 

6. Janitors and Sanitation. (6) Druggist, (1) machinist, (2) retired 

gentleman. 

7. Rules and Grievances. (7) Lumberyard foreman, (3) grocer, 

(4) shoe clerk. 

8. Promotions and Graduation. (8) Hotel-keeper, (5) real-estate agent, 

(6) druggist. 

9. Kindergartens. (9) Busy lawyer, (7) lumberyard fore- 

man, (8) hotel-keeper. 

10. Elementary Schools. (10) Bookkeeper, (9) busy lawyer, 

(11) young lawyer. 

11. High Schools. (11) Young lawyer, (1) machinist, 

(10) bookkeeper. 

12. Presiding Officer.* (12) Banker. 

*Ex officio a member of all committees. 

While the above is, of course, a hypothetical case, it would 
not be at all surprising if the outhne represented an actual 
condition in some city in the United States. The equivalent, 
at least, of such an arrangement exists in many of our 
cities. 

The trouble with any such arrangement of committees 
and distribution of 'work lies in that there is little that such 
committees can do intelUgently, or ought ever attempt to do, 
in the government of any city school system. They must 
either delegate their work in turn to the superintendent of 
schools or some other executive officer, or else continually 
interfere with the proper work of the superintendent, mak- 
ing blunder after blunder as they work. The pity of the 
situation is that too often neither they nor the people they 
represent know that they are blundering and mismanaging 
the most important undertaking of the community. When 
the superintendent of schools objects to their blundering 
and mismanagement, they do not understand him, and often 
consider him as merely greedy for power. 

Committee control applied to hospital management. The 
absurdity of such committee control of professional and 
technical matters will be seen more easily if we assume that 



114 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



this same board of twelve men has been elected by the peo- 
ple to represent them in the management of a municipal 
hospital, and that they then divided themselves up as be- 
fore, for purposes of control, into eleven approximately equiv- 
alent committees. We then get the following results: — 



CoTnmittees 

1. Doctors and Nurses. 

2. Medical Treatment. 

3. Drugs and Instruments. 

4. Ward and Kitchen Supplies. 

5. Buildings and Grounds. 

6. Nurses and Attendants. 

7. Complaints. 

8. Operative Cases. 

9. Maternity Ward. 

10. Children's Ward. 

11. Contagious Diseases. 

12. Presiding Officer * 



Membership 

(1) Machinist, (2) retired gentleman, 

(3) grocer. 

(2) Retired gentleman, (4) shoe clerk, 

(5) real-estate agent. 

(3) Grocer, (6) druggist, (7) lumber- 

yard foreman. 

(4) Shoe clerk, (8) hotel-keeper, 

(9) busy lawyer. 

(5) Real-estate agent, (10) book- 

keeper, (11) young lawyer. 

(6) Druggist, (1) machinist, (2) retired 

gentleman. 

(7) Lumberyard foreman, (3) grocer, 

(4) shoe clerk. 

(8) Hotel-keeper, (5) real-estate agent, 

(6) druggist. 

(9) Busy lawyer, (7) lumberyard fore- 

man, (8) hotel-keeper. 

(10) Bookkeeper, (9) busy lawyer, 

(11) young lawyer. 

(11) Young lawyer, (1) machinist, 

(10) bookkeeper. 

(12) Banker. 



* Ex officio a member of all committees. 

Take for granted now that these eleven committees as- 
sume the same degree of control over the hospital that such 
committees do over the schools, and the same degree of 
authority, individually and collectively, over the superin- 
tendent, heads of departments, and nurses, that similar com- 
mittees and committee members frequently do over the 
superintendent of schools, the principals, and the teachers in 
the schools. The result is easily imaginable, yet the mis- 
management in the case of the hospital could not be greater 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOARDS 115 

than very frequently takes place to-day in the management 
of city schools. 

The chief difference lies in that, in the case of mismanage- 
ment in the administration of a hospital, the effect is soon 
visible and is easily brought within the comprehension of 
the people. In the case of mismanagement in the adminis- 
tration of a city school system the effect is concealed, — the 
people, as yet, having no standards by means of which they 
can understand that mismanagement is taking place. While 
a good superintendent of schools makes about as good and 
as thorough preparation for his work as does a physician or 
a surgeon for his, and is about as competent in his profes- 
sional field as is a physician or surgeon in his, the public does 
not understand this, and can hardly appreciate that such 
can be the case. The profession of medicine is an old one, 
and there has been time to evolve popular standards as to 
its work; the superintendent of schools is a recent evolution, 
and popular standards regarding his work have not yet been 
developed. 

Committee service time-consuming. Turning back to the 
list of educational committees given, practically every func- 
tion coming under the jurisdiction of committees, 1, 2, 3, 
4, 8, 9, 10, and 11 are educational functions, and should go 
to the superintendent of instruction, and grievances under 7 
should go to the same place. The work of committees 5 and 6 
lies more within the province of a school board, though part 
of each is also clearly the work of the superintendent of 
schools. It is in the attempt to handle all such professional 
and technical matters themselves that boards of education 
usually make their most serious administrative errors. 

Matters coming before the board are referred to these 
committees for consideration and report. The opinion of 
the superintendent of instruction is usually sought, but 
sometimes he is entirely ignored. The committees meet fre- 



116 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

quently, and the board meets frequently in consequence.* 
The members are earnest, the new problems are interesting 
to them, and they frequently sacrifice much time and show 
a deep devotion to duty in their efforts to render service to 
the schools. Ofttimes, when the time consumed in such com- 
mittee work and board meetings is considered, one is led to 
wonder how any one except a man of wealth or leisure, or a 
young man of no particular business, can afford to accept 
membership on such a school board. ^ 

Committee action illustrated. A few examples, all actual 
cases, which have come to the writer's attention, will illus- 
trate the over-activity of committees. 

In one city the board committee on course of study 
meets with the principals and teachers, and formulates 
and approves even the smallest details of its administra- 
tion. The superintendent is seldom consulted, and natur- 
ally disclaims any responsibility for the kind of instruction 
offered. 

In another city the board meets with the principals in 
the matter of changes in the teaching force, sees personally 
all applicants for positions, and elects and discharges, from 
vest-pocket memoranda, and as influenced by the pressure 
of interested friends. 

In another city the committee on books and library spent 

1 The school board at Portland, Oregon (see Survey Report, chap, n), 
illustrates the process very well. The board of five was divided into eight 
standing committees, with two members and the president on each, each 
member being on four of the eight committees. These committees met 
weekly, and sometimes oftener, and the board as a whole, in addition to 
the seven regular fortnightly meetings, held sixteen special meetings during 
the three months between February 20 and May 23, for which tabulations 
were made. 

2 The twenty different types of business considered, given in the Port- 
land Survey Report (chap, ii), further illustrate the point. Here a board, 
composed of good men, was engaged in supervising minute details in the 
administration of the schools, while the paid executive officers acted largely 
as clerks to transmit requests and to report back decisions. 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOARDS 117 

thousands of dollars in purchasing an adult's hbrary for the 
high school, which was of little use for teaching purposes, 
and books for the grades which were not at all suited to the 
needs of the pupils. 

In another city the supply committee, in favoring a partic- 
ular local dealer, furnished such a poor quality of writing- 
paper that good writing exercises or composition work during 
the ensuing year were next to impossible. 

In stiU another city the supply committee ordered the 
supply estimate of the superintendent for the year's needs 
cut fifty per cent, with the result that teachers and classes 
had but most limited supplies for their work. 

In another city the committee on buildings met fre- 
quently, for months, with a local architect, in evolving a 
plan for a new grammar-school building, to be the largest 
and finest in the city, and, after the plans had been ap- 
proved and the foundations were in, the board was finally 
convinced that half of the rooms were poorly lighted, — 
four of them so poorly as to be unfit for use, — and stopped 
the work to reconsider the matter. 

In two other cities, members of the teachers, instruction, 
or course of study committee go to the schools, observe the 
instruction, and criticize the work of the teachers and the 
management of the principals. 

In city S the committee on printing reported 

against allowing the superintendent of schools to have a 
certain perfectly harmless form of letter-head printed; in 

city B the committee on supplies recommended 

against allowing the purchase of a certain brand of salad- 
dressing desired for the domestic-science work, on the ground 
that other brands could be purchased for less money. The 
reports in both cases were adopted by the board. 

Hines tells of a case where the blacksmith at the head 
of the textbook committee determined the Latin book to be 



118 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRA.TION 

used in the high school.^ The writer knows of a case where 
the chairman of the same committee stopped the use of a 
certain United States history in the high-school classes, be- 
cause he did not think it fair to the Northern side, he being 
a prominent G.A.R. man. 

A confusion in functions. All of these cases of over-ac- 
tivity on the part of board members and board committees 
arise from a confusion as to what the members were elected 
to do. A school board is elected primarily as a board of school 
control, to determine poKcies, select experts, approve new 
undertakings, and determine expenditures, and the members 
transform it into a board of supervision for the detailed over- 
sight of the work of the schools. This no board of laymen 
should undertake to do. 

In all such matters as the outlining or changing of courses 
of study, the selection of textbooks and hbrary books, the 
character or the competency of the instruction, the selec- 
tion, assignment, promotion, and dismissal of teachers and 
janitors, and the engineering and hygienic problems of 
schoolhouse construction, boards and their committees 
should not attempt independent action. Instead, experts 
competent to deal with such problems should be employed, 
and their opinions should be sought and followed. In case 
a board doubts the wisdom of an opinion it should either 
postpone the matter for further consideration with the ex- 
pert, secure an additional opinion from an outside disin- 
terested expert, or employ a new expert whose judgment 
they are willing to follow. If the expert knows his business the 
board is almost certain to act unwisely if it acts in opposi- 
tion to his judgment.^ 

^ See L. R. Hines, "The Ideal School Board from the Superintendent's 
Point of View"; in Proceedings of the National Education Association, 1911, 
p. 1001. 

2 This calls for an exercise of self-restraint which many strong men find 
it hard to carry out, as the desire to control is pronounced in such men. 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOAKDS 119 

The real work of the board. This does not mean that a 
board of education will have nothing left to do, though its 
labors will naturally be materially reduced. Freed from the 
details of school organization and administration, and from 
the pulls and influences which surround detailed work on 
many of the larger features of the administrative problem^ 
the board is now free to devote its energies to the problems 
of its work as a board for school control. These relate to the 
selection, from time to time, of its expert advisers, a prob- 
lem upon which far more time and care should be spent than 
is usually given to it; the selection of school sites, always with 
the larger future needs of the community in mind; the de- 
termination of the annual budget and tax levy; the consider- 
ation of recommendations for the expansion of the school 
system; the prevention of legislation by the city or by the 
legislature which is against the best interests of the schools 
under their control; and the proper presentation, to the peo- 
ple whom they represent, of the work and needs of the schools 
and the policies of the school department. It is these larger 
problems of control which are most important, but which 
are almost certain to be neglected when a school board 
undertakes to transform itself into a board of supervision 
and to handle the details of school administration. 

Legislative and executive functions. In other words, 
boards of education should act as legislative, and not as 
executive bodies, and a clear distinction * should be drawn 

^ "The duties of the board of education as fixed by law involve the es- 
tablishment and maintenance of a public school system. This implies 
that the board, acting for the people, shall prescribe the general educational 
policy of the city, determining, on the one hand, the kind and number of 
buildings to be erected for school purposes, and on the other what shall be 
taught in the schools, and spending economically and fairly the school funds 
for these purposes. The administration in detail of the schools, either on the 
educational or on the business side, cannot be carried on by the board act- 
ing as a whole, and should not be carried on by a system of committee 
management." Report of the Educational Commission of Chicago, p. 14. 



120 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

between what are legislative and what are executive func- 
tions. The legislative functions belong, by right, to the 
board, and the legislation should be enacted, after discus- 
sion, by means of formal and recorded votes. The board's 
work, as the representative of the people, is to sit in judg- 
ment on proposals and to determine the general policy of the 
school system. 

Once a pohcy has been decided upon, however, its execu- 
tion should rest with the executive officer or officers em- 
ployed by the board, the chief of whom will naturally be the 
superintendent of schools. If the board desires information 
on any question, it should direct its executive officer or 
officers to furnish it. On the recommendations submitted 
the board should sit in judgment, and, until convinced of 
the wisdom of the recommendations, the board should hold 
them in abeyance. In all matters which are strictly profes- 
sional, and which relate to the details of administration, the 
board should refuse to act in any way until the matter has 
first been brought before the proper executive officer, and 
his decision should not be reversed imless the board is thor- 
oughly convinced that he is wrong. ^ Even then, in many 
cases, the board will be wise not to act hastily. 

In certain strictly professional matters, such as courses 
of study, textbooks, and instruction, boards should be de- 
prived of the right to act, except upon his recommendation. 
The wisdom of such a separation of functions in the ad- 
ministration of a city school system has been shown repeat- 

1 "Its functions are not executive, but legislative, deliberative, advi- 
sory, and report hearing. In the nature of the case, being a lay body, it 
cannot itself run the schools. Instead, it is there to represent the people by 
performing for them certain delegated functions of selecting experts to run 
the schools, advising with them as to how the people would have public 
education conducted, examining into the sufficiency of their plans, pass- 
ing upon their reports of results, and maintaining a general oversight over 
all that they do; upholding and protecting them in their work as long as it 
is satisfactory, and putting others in their places as soon as it ceases to be 
go." E. C. Moore, How New York City Administers its Schools, p. 89. 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOARDS 121 

edly in our city schools. It is when boards or board com- 
mittees, anxious to direct and manage as well as to govern, 
seize executive functions and begin to displace the chosen 
executive officers in the administration of the school system, 
that trouble usually begins to develop. 

In the exercise of its legislative functions the board will 
need few, if any, standing committees. If the board is small, 
say five or seven, action can be taken better as a whole, all 
committees being purely temporary. In any case, three com- 
mittees will be sufficient for even a large board, namely, a 
committee on educational affairs, a committee on business 
affairs, and a committee on buildings and finance. The first 
would consider the recommendations of the superintendent 
of instruction in all educational matters; the second would, 
in a broad way, consider the business matters of the school 
department; while the third would deal with the larger mat- 
ters of finance for yearly maintenance, sites, and buildings. 
Many students of educational administration feel that 
school board standing committees serve little or no useful 
purpose, and should be prohibited by law. 

Selection of executive officers. Such a separation of leg- 
islative and executive functions means the selection of a 
properly trained expert, or experts, and then giving to such 
men both responsibility and power. The board of educa- 
tion then becomes what it should be, — a real board for 
school control. The selection of such experts is one of the 
most important functions any board is called upon to exer- 
cise, and hasty or careless action here is likely to interfere 
seriously with the efficiency of the schools for years to come. 

The first and most important of these officials, and in 
many cities the only one to be chosen, is the superintendent 
of schools. It is he who gives tone and character to the 
entire school system. To select local men because they are 
local men, to promote the principal of the high school be- 



H2 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

cause he is considered next in line, to consider only those who 
come and apply for the place, or to consider, for a moment, 
any such purely extraneous reasons as locahty, politics, 
religion, fraternal-order membership, club or social influence, 
or mere good nature and personal acceptability, is a sure 
way to head toward a serious mistake. To allow city politics 
or political trades to determine the choice is also a sure way 
to engraft an incompetent and a politician on the system, — 
one whom the board will find it hard to get rid of, and one 
whom they will sooner or later be forced to ignore. The best 
men do not seek office by these means. Still more, the men 
most worth having usually do not seek the office at all. They 
do not have to. WTiile not always true, in a general way it 
might be said that a man's ability properly to fill the posi- 
tion of superintendent of schools is about inversely propor- 
tional to the effort he makes to secure the position. 

Bases for selection. Instead, the board should regard the 
selection of its superintendent of schools as the most im- 
portant duty it ever has to perform. Instead of considering 
only those who apply, the board itself should make an active 
and an intelHgent search for the best man or woman avail- 
able for the money which the city can afford to pay. This, 
too, is no place to economize. The salary should be made 
large, so as to tempt the best men,^ and the tenure should 
be long enough also to offer attractions. ^ 

1 T le difference between a salary of $3000 and $4000 for a city of 20,000 
inhabitants, is a per-cajnta difference of only three and a third cents per 
year, but to the superintendent, on an estimated cost of $2500 a year for 
living, $4000 is three times as large a salary as $3000, and hence will draw 
a very much better grade of man. It is a fundamental mistake for a board 
to economize or haggle here when good men are under consideration. Sim- 
ilarly, for a city of 250,000 inhabitants, a salary of $7500 costs but one cent 
more per inhabitant per year than does a salary of $5000, when in quality 

\f service it should purchase at least twice as efficient a superintendent. 

2 The usual one-year tenure is most undesirable, and is unattractive to 
jhe best men. It does not give a man a proper chance to work out an educa- 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOARDS 123 

The authority to be assured the new superintendent, too, 
should be commensurate with the importance of the service 
the board expects him to render to the city. The things 
which should count with the board are his general educa- 
tion, his specific training for the work of city school super- 
vision, his past administrative experience, what men prom- 
inently engaged in educational work have to say when asked 
confidentially for an opinion,^ and his personality, force, 
and general grasp of the problem as shown in a personal 
interview. What the board should seek is a man of strength, 
courage, personal force, general knowledge, and professional 
skill, — one who can look them in the eye with a confi- 
dence born of being the master of his calling. 

K other executive officers are to be selected, such as a 
school clerk, a business manager, a school architect or en- 
gineer, a superintendent of attendance or of health, similar 
care should be exercised in making each selection. After the 
selection has been made the board should turn the executive 
functions over to such executive officers, and then expect 
them to look after their part in the administrative organiza- 
tion in a wise and intelligent manner. If they cannot or will 
not do so, — that is, if the board has made a mistake in their 
selection, — a change in executive head should be made at 
the first opportunity. 

Types of board members. To render such inteUigent serv- 
ice to the school system of a city as has been indicated 
requires the selection of a peculiar type of citizen for school- 

tionai policy, and is too often used by boards to keep a superintendent in 
proper subjection. 

^ General letters of recommendation should be practically discarded 
here. What is wanted is confidential letters from those whose educational 
opinion is worth while, and also from former employing boards, WTitten 
directly and in reply to specific questions as to the abihty of the person 
under consideration to handle a certain specified problem or situation. A 
personal interview should also be sought, and if the distance to be traveled 
is far, it should be at the expense of the school district. 



124 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

board member. In many respects it calls for a higher and a 
more intelligent type of commmiity service than is called 
for in any other branch of mimicipal work. Remembering 
that it is the function of a school board to select experts for 
the executive work, and to govern by decidmg upon the 
larger matters of policy, expansion, and expenditure, and 
not to administer, in any detail, the school system under 
their control, we can deduce the type of man most Ukely 
to prove useful as a member of a city board for school 

control. 

Men who are successful in the handling of large business 
undertakings — manufacturers, merchants, bankers, con- 
tractors, and professional men of large practice — would 
perhaps come first. Such men are accustomed to handlmg 
business rapidly; are usually wide awake, sane, and pro- 
gressive; are not afraid to spend money intelhgently; are in 
the habit of depending upon experts for advice, and for the 
execution of administrative details; and have the tact and 
perseverance necessary to get the most efficient service out 
of everybody from superintendent down. Such men, too, 
think for themselves, can resist pressure, and can explain the 
reasons for their actions. College graduates who are suc- 
cessful in their business or professional affairs, whatever may 
be their profession or occupation, also usually make good 
board members, provided their education has been liberal 
enough to enable them to understand properly the cultural 
side of public education.^ 

1 Chancellor, in Our Schools: Their Administration and Supervision 
(p. 11), thus describes an ideal school-board member: — 

" 1. Age from thirty to sixty-five years. 

2. Education, at least to the extent of high-school graduation. 

3. Experience in the affairs of property, or of a business. 

4. The confidence in himself and the reputation for good judgment that 
comes with success in one's personal affairs." 

Hines (see chapter references) also gives an excellent outline of what 
constitutes a good school-board member. 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOARDS 125 

On the other hand, the list of those who usually do not 
make good school-board members is much larger. Inex- 
perienced young men, unsuccessful men, old men who have 
retired from business, politicians, saloon-keepers, unedu- 
cated or relatively ignorant men, men in minor business 
positions, and women, ^ are usually considered as unde- 
sirable for board membership. ^ All such persons tend to 
deal too much with details, to miss the importance of large 
points of view, and tend to assume executive authority when 
and where they should not. Perhaps still more objection- 
able than any of these are people of any class or either sex 
who desire to ride an educational hobby, or those who wish 
to get on the school board to revolutionize things. The 
crank, the hobby-rider, or the extremist should never be put 
on boards of education. What is wanted is a sane, an evenly 
balanced, and an all-around administration of the schools, 
leaving the details of administration to those who can handle 
them best. 

Results of faithful service. The service that a broad- 
minded and progressive school board, free from political, 

1 "The thought that women would make better board members than 
men has its source largely in the erroneous notion that the board mem- 
ber's business is to deal directly with schoolroom problems, have confer- 
ences with the teachers and pupils, and do many things a woman can do as 
well as a man. The board member, according to such ideas, is actually to 
supervise the work of the schools. The truth of the matter is that the 
affairs of the school board are largely business matters. The fixing of tax 
rates, the distribution of funds, the erection of buildings, the providing of 
repairs to buildings, listening to complaints of citizens, buying supplies, hir- 
ing janitors, etc., constitute the greatest part of the school board's business. 
The average refined, sensitive woman is not fitted in any way to deal with 
such things. As a board member she is likely to tire soon of the only work 
she can do without interfering with the actual working of the schools with 
which she is connected." (Hines [see chapter references], p. 998.) 

2 Chancellor, in Our Schools; Their Administration and Svpervision (pp. 
12-16 and 61-67), gives a more detailed explanation why these various 
classes usually make good or bad school-board members. Hines also should 
be read on this point. 



126 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

denominational, and fraternal influences; one that works 
with the higher welfare of the schools under its control con- 
stantly in mind; and one that extends to its executive offi- 
cers the confidence and intelligent sympathy which brings 
out the best in each of them, so that all connected with the 
schools feel assured of their wisdom and fairness; — such a 
community service is one the importance of which is hard 
to overestimate. To few men in any community comes the 
opportunity for finer or more enduring service. To feel that 
one has by his labors contributed to conditions which have 
resulted in a better moral tone in the community and a 
quickened intellectual life for all, is a personal satisfaction 
which is more attractive than money to the type of men most 
likely to make good school-board members. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Why is the school administration in a city less disturbed by changes in 
the personnel of the school board when the term is long and the replace- 
ment gradual than when the opposite is true? 

2. "Why is it natural for a new school-board member to feel that he has 
been elected to manage the schools? 

3. Why does the public have trouble in appreciating that a good school 
superintendent is as skillful and technically as well trained as a physi- 
cian or a surgeon? 

4. Why, when a superintendent of schools objects to board mismanage- 
ment and asks for power commensurate with the responsibility he feels 
for proper administration, is he said to be "hungry for power," or 
"desirous to rule," whereas similar demands from a doctor in charge of 
a hospital or a superintendent in charge of a factory would be sustained 
by public opinion? 

5. Why, if a nurse is unskillful and as a result patients die, does she re- 
ceive little sympathy when discharged, whereas an unsuccessful teacher, 
under whom children die intellectually, frequently gets much public 
sympathy, and can often put the superintendent on trial if he attempts 
to secure her dismissal? 

6. Explain what you understand by a separation of legislative and exec- 
utive functions. Does a state legislature assume executive functions? 
Does a city council? Does a board of directors for a bank? 

7. Why have school boards assumed executive functions more than other 
legislative bodies? 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOARDS 127 

8. Is the existence of a number of standing committees a constant temp- 
tation to a board to exercise executive functions? 

9. What advantages do you see would accrue to a board of education if it 
referred all matters involving professional functions to the superin- 
tendent of schools, and refused to act on such except on his recom- 
mendation? 

10. Suppose that the superintendent of schools cannot or will not exercise 
executive functions, has Uttle or no educational policy, and a weak way 
of dealing with administrative questions and problems; should the 
board or its committees assume his functions and manage the schools? 

11. Should a board ever attempt to plan a school building? 

12. Have you ever known any boards which divested themselves of exec- 
utive functions, and looked after the larger problems of their work? 
What was the general result on the schools? 

13. Have you known of cases where boards were so busy with the details 
of administration that they allowed legislation inimical to the best in- 
terests of the schools to go through the legislature or the council? What 
was the nature of such legislation? 

14. Is a board justified : — 

(a) In regulating the purchase of salad-dressing for the schools? 
(6) In dictating the kind of paper or pencils which must be bought? 

(c) In regulating the superintendent's stationery? 

(d) In granting an interview as a body to a man who apphes for a 
position as a school principal? 

(e) In receiving a committee from a body of teachers who wish to 
recommend their principal for a vacant supervisor's position? 

(J) In requiring a high-school principal to apply to them for per- 
mission to have a distinguished visitor speak to the high-school 
students? 
{g) In ordering the purchase for the schools of books or apparatus 
specified by them? 
If so, under what conditions or circumstances? 

15. What is the danger of a man with an educational hobby on a school 
board? What misconception are the people under in selecting such a 
person? 

16. Is a board of education justified, as is not infrequently done, in taking 
the ground that they will not consider an applicant for some important 
position because he has not filed a formal application? 

17. Some superintendents contend that it is just as well that all legal 
powers continue to rest viith boards of education, as then each 
superintendent secures such powers and authority as he is able to 
use. Wliat do you think of this argument ? 

18. Enumerate some of the advantages which would accrue to board 
members if they all declined to deal with matters which were pri- 
marily executive, leaving all such to its executive officers, referring all 
persons to them, and taking action only on their recommendations. 



128 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. What powers are guaranteed, by general law, to city superintendents 
of schools in your State? In half a dozen other selected States? 

2. Examine the rules and regulations of the board of education in half a 
dozen selected cities to see in how far they conform to the principles 
laid down in this chapter. 

3. To what extent does committee control exist in the city school systems 
of your State, what committees are provided for, and how large are 
their powers? 

4. Draw up so much of a set of rules and regulations for the government 
of a board of education as has to do with the relations which should 
exist between it and its chief executive officer in matters of educational 
pohcy and general administrative control of the schools; the names and 
work of board conmiittees; and provide for a proper separation of leg- 
islative and executive functions. 

5. Draw up a plan of procedure to be followed in the selection of a 
new superintendent of schools. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Butte, Montana. Report of a Survey of the School System. 163 pp. 1914. 
Published by the School Board. (Sale price, 25 cents.) 

Chapter VII, on the administration of the schools, deals with the proper work of 
the board as a board of control. 

Chancellor, W. E. Our Schools; Their Administration and Supervision. 434 
pp. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1904. 

Chapter EL is very good on the board and its work. Gives many good illustrations. 
Chicago, Illinois. Report of the Educational Commission of. 248 pp. Chi- 
cago, 1899. Reprinted by the University of Chicago Press. 
Article I good on the organization and work of a board of education. 
Draper, A. S. "The Crucial Test of the Public Schools"; in American 
Education, pp. 77-86. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1909, 383 pp. 

A very good article on the need of concentrating power in the hands of the school 
board's executive officers. 
Eliot, Charles W. "A Good Urban School Organization"; in Report of 
U. S. Commissioner of Education., 1903, vol. n, pp. 1356-62. 

Describes the St. Louis system, and the way the board and its executive officers 
handle the educational business. A good article. 

Eliot, E. C. "School Administration; the St. Louis Method"; in Educa- 
tional Renew, vol. 26, pp. 464-75. (December, 1903.) 

Describes how the new St. Louis board transacts the business through its executive 
officers. 
EUis, D. A. "A Decade of School Administration in Boston"; in Proceed- 
ings of National Education Association, 1910, pp. 987-92. 

Describes the fundamental reorganizations effected by the new and smaller school 
board. 



FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOL BOARDS 129 

Greenwood, J. M. "The Superintendent and the Board of Education"; 

in Educational Review, vol. 18, pp. 363-77. (November, 1899.) 

An excellent article on the work and relationships which should exist between a 
superintendent of schools and a board of education in our smaller cities. 

Hines, L. N. "The Ideal School Board from the Superintendent's Point 
of View"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1911, pp. 
994-1002. 

An excellent statement. 

Hunsicker, B. F. "Retrospective and Prospective School Administration"; 

in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1904, pp. 897-901. 

General on educational progress, chiefly with reference to work and attitudes of 
boards of education. 

Mark, C . W. " The Function of School Boards " ; in Proceedings of National 
Education Association, 1909, pp. 839-42. 
The board simply as a board of control for the schools. 
Moore, E. C. How New York City Administers its Schools, 321 pp. Part of 
the New York City School Survey Report of 1911-12. Reprinted by 
World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1913. 

A detailed consideration of the work of the board for New York City. Points out 
the difficulties in the way of efficient administration. The principles stated are appli- 
cable to other large cities. A valuable volume. 

Portland, Oregon. Report of the Survey of the Public School System (1913). 
418 pp. Reprinted by the World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1915. 
Chapter II describes the work done by the board, and lays down fundamental 
principles of action. A good example of board over-activity. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. 
250 pp. 1915. Published by the School Board. 

Chapter II deals with the work of the board, and indicates a desirable admioistra* 
tive efficiency. 

Soldan, F. L. " Charter Provisions for Reorganization of School Systems"; 
in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1905, pp. 231-35. 
Describes certain administrative details of the St. Louis system. 
Sutton, W. S. "The School Board as a Factor in Educational Efficiency"^ 
in Educational Review, vol. 49, pp. 258-65. (March, 1915.) 
A good general article on what constitutes a board of education's proper functioui. 



CHAPTER X 

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 

A new profession. As we look back over the three quar- 
ters of a century during which the office of superintendent of 
city schools has been in existence, a few names stand out 
with particular prominence as men who have laid — often 
against tremendous obstacles, often in conflict and contest 
to the end of their careers, and often by the sacrifice of much 
that men hold dear — the foundation principles of the new 
work to which they gave the best years of their lives. Doing 
a pioneer work, and often misunderstood and unappreciated 
by those with whom they labored, these men patiently 
blazed a trail for others to follow. As a recent writer has 
put it,^ " each traveled the trail at his own gait, with rations 
and blanket only, and never knowing, though caring much, 
where each year's tramping would end." Out of this three 
quarters of a century of trial, conflict, discussion, and ex- 
perimentation, a profession of school supervision is at last 
being evolved. 

School supervision represents a new profession, and one 
which in time will play a very important part in the develop- 
ment of American life. In pecuniary, social, professional, 
and personal rewards it ranks with the other learned pro- 
fessions, while the call for city school superintendents of the 
right type is to-day greater than the call for lawyers, doctors, 
or ministers. The opportunities offered in this new pro- 
fession to men of strong character, broad sympathies, high 

I A. Gove, "The Trail of the City Superintendent/' in Proc. N. E. A. 
1900, p. 215. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 131 

purposes, fine culture, courage, exact training, and execu- 
tive skill, and who are willing to take the time and spend the 
energy necessary to prepare themselves for large service, 
are to-day not excelled in any of the professions, learned or 
otherwise. No profession offers such large personal re- 
wards, for the opportunity of living one's life in moulding 
other lives, and in helping to improve materially the intel- 
lectual tone and moral character of a community, offers a 
personal reward that makes a peculiarly strong appeal to 
certain fine types of men and women. 

Despite inadequate rewards in the past, this new profes- 
sion has for long attracted to it many of the best minds of 
the nation, men fully informed as to what the rising gener- 
ation may become and dedicated to the service of trying to 
realize possibilities, — often under discouraging conditions. 
Within recent years there has been a much larger realiza- 
tion, on the part of the pubHc, of the importance of the office 
of School superintendent, and in many cities to-day the head 
of the school system is the best paid official in the pay of 
the community. To attract the best minds to the educa- 
tional service, though, there should be offered here a chance 
to attain some of the distinguishing marks of success which 
mark other professional callings. 

Importance of this official. Potentially, at least, the most 
important officer in the employ of the people of any mu- 
nicipality to-day is the person who directs the organization 
and administration of its school system, and who supervises 
the instruction given therein. Actually, the condition fre- 
quently is otherwise, but where the superintendent of schools 
is of the type he should be he^ renders a service the impor- 
tance of which, in terms of character and future citizenship^ 

* Here, as elsewhere throughout this book, the masculine form is used* 
anc for the simple reason that nearly all of our city superintendents are 
men. What is said, however, is equally applicable to women. 



132 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

is not approached by that of any other official in the employ 
of a municipality. In popular estimation the mayor, the 
president of the city council, the chief of police, or the head 
of the fire department may occupy more important posi- 
tions, but the far-reaching character of the services of a 
capable and energetic superintendent of schools transcends 
in importance any of these. 

What the schools are in organization, administration, in- 
struction, spirit, and purpose, and the position which they 
occupy in the eyes of the community, they are largely as the 
result of the actions, labors, manliness, courage, clear vision, 
and common sense of the superintendent of schools. About 
him and his work the schools revolve, and it is largely he who 
makes or mars the system. What he is, the schools, under 
proper administrative conditions, become; what he is not, 
they often plainly show. 

Large duties of the office. His is the central office in the 
school system, up to which and down from which authority, 
direction, and inspiration flow. He is the organizer and 
director of the work of the schools in all of their different 
phases, and the representative of the schools and all for 
which the schools stand before the people of the community. 
He is the executive officer of the school board, and also its 
eyes, and ears, and brains. He is the supervisor of the in- 
struction in the schools, and also the leader, adviser, inspirer, 
and friend of the teachers, and between them and the board 
of education he must, at times, interpose as an arbiter. 
Amid all of his various duties, however, the interests of the 
children in the schools must be his chief care, and the larger 
educational interests of the community as a whole he must 
constantly keep in mind. 

The position of superintendent of schools in a modern city, 
if properly filled, is a full man's job, and calls for the best 
that is in a strong, capable, well-trained, and mature man. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 133 

It is a position for which a young man ought to be willing 
to spend many years in hard and painstaking preparation. 
To be able to obtain a small superintendency at thirty, and a 
large and important position at forty, is about what a young 
man desiring to prepare for the work should be content to 
expect. It is a position for which years of careful prepara- 
tion should be made, and, given equal native ability, the 
more careful has been the preparation the larger is likely to 
be the ultimate success. 

Perhaps it may not be out of place, at this point, to turn 
from the problems of school administration proper and de- 
vote the remainder of this chapter to a description of the 
professional preparation which a young man, desiring to 
prepare for school superintendency work, should make to- 
day; the type of professional experience he should acquire; 
and the kind of personal qualities he ought to expect to bring 
to the work. The following may be taken to represent a 
minimum professional preparation, if any large future suc- 
cess is to be expected. 

Education and training. In the first place a good college 
education may be considered as an absolute essential for 
future work, and at least a year of graduate study, doing 
advanced work in the study of educational problems, is 
practically a necessity now. Men of large grasp and ability 
should not stop here, but, after a few years of practical ex- 
perience, should go on and obtain their Ph.D. degree. 

The exact nature of the preliminary preparation is perhaps 
less important than that it should be good, and that it 
should challenge the best efforts of the student, awaken 
worthy ambitions, and stimulate the development of a high 
ideal of service. The preparation should be broad, and 
should early open up to the student permanent interests in 
fields of music and art, literature, history, science, and 
human welfare. These he needs for breadth and under- 



1S4 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

standing. His future success as the head of a school system 
will to a rather large degree depend upon his intelligent 
understanding of the scientific and industrial world about 
him, his broad human sympathies, and his ability to meet 
people of culture and refinement on their own plane. 

In addition to this preHminary and genered preparation 
the student needs to superimpose a technical preparation in 
educational theory, and a practical preparation in actual 
school practice. As early as the sophomore year, certainly 
not later than the junior, a brief introductory course on the 
place, purpose, and nature of pubhc education, and an intro- 
duction to educational theory can be taken with advantage. 
In the junior and senior years this should be followed with 
courses which give a good general introduction to the differ- 
ent fields of educational theory, history, administration, and 
practice. The graduate year should be devoted largely to 
advanced courses, and to the careful working-out of some 
special problem in educational theory or practice. What is 
desired is a good introduction to the different fields and to 
the literature of education, and some practice in the methods 
by which educational problems are solved. 

The years of apprenticeship. All of this is merely prelim- 
inary, however. On top of this the candidate must now 
spend his apprenticeship and period of preliminary practice 
in his profession.^ The ^ve or six years which he now spends 
in teaching or in serving as a school principal ought to be 
years when he more than doubles the effectiveness of his 
general and professional collegiate preparation. If necessary 
to avoid falling into a rut, or getting a poor or one-sided ex- 
perience, he should move about during this period. If salary 

1 This period of apprenticeship, which we may assume to be spent in a 
school principalship, involves the mastery of most of the details of school 
organization and administration as applied to a single school. This work 
will form the subject-matter of another book of this series, on The Organi' 
zaiion and Administration of a School. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 135 

does not seem large enough to cover both married life and 
study, he should for a time resolutely put marriage aside. 

During these years he should save as much time as pos- 
sible for careful reading and study along the lines of his 
future profession. Above all, during these years, he should 
gradually crystallize for himself a working educational phi- 
losophy, to guide him in his future work and to vitalize all of 
his later procedure. He must seize intelligent hold of the 
conception that education stands for the higher evolution 
of both the individual and the race, and must relegate 
to their proper place in the educational scheme all of the 
details of organization, administration, and instruction. 
Without such a guiding conception administrative work 
soon becomes dull and fruitless routine. 

Learning and working. He should now accumulate a good 
working library along the line of his major interests. He 
should keep closely in touch, too, with all advancements and 
important experiments in his field, and with what other 
workers elsewhere are doing. He should welcome new school 
tasks, making himself as professionally useful as possible, 
and taking a deep personal satisfaction in doing difficult 
things. He should give himself good practice in developing 
an ability to speak well and easUy, and to write clearly and 
convincingly. He should mix some with practical men of 
affairs, from whom he can learn much that will be very 
useful to him later on. If the opportunity offers to join a dis- 
cussion club, especially if composed of men older and more 
mature than himself, he should embrace the chance. He may 
even lead in the formation of such a club himself. He 
should read biography, and study and try to imitate the best 
traits of the successful men he has come to know, both in 
literature and real life. Often some old doctor, or banker, or 
lawyer in the community will prove worthy of some close 
personal study. 



186 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

He should, during this period, keep himseK free from all 
practices, entanglements, clubs, and especially local social 
obligations, which are wasteful of time and energy and have 
in them little that is of permanent profit. He must, during 
these years, wilHngly accept work and burdens which lead 
toward his desired goal, and resolutely reject those which 
do not. He should know and remember that the habit 
of hard and faithful work is one that is established but 
slowly, that it requires close watching of one's pole star to 
establish it, and that it is not fully established in most men 
until they are somewhere near thirty or thirty-five years of 
age. He should also know and remember that it takes about 
thirty-five or forty years of hard and faithful work to get 
ready to do something really large in life. 

Rightly used, a half-dozen years after graduation can be 
spent, with great future advantage, in subordinate positions 
in the practical field. 

Dangerous pitfalls. It is during these years, however, that 
many a promising young man goes to pieces, so far as any 
large later usefulness in educational work is concerned. His 
college training gave him some feeling of mastery; he was 
trained there to do difficult things with some ease. When he 
goes to some smaller community he soon finds it unnecessary 
to work as he has done before. He also lacks the constant 
stimulus to sustained effort. Excepting a few lawyers and a 
few doctors, he is already one of the best educated men in the 
small city. His position, perhaps a principalship, gives him 
at once a special standing in the community. The people 
naturally look up to him as a man of more than ordinary 
training and importance. On the streets the men call him 
** Professor," and pretty grade teachers and women with 
marriageable daughters seek him out, and flatter his van- 
ity. His daily work in superintending women and children, 
who usually accept his pronouncements as law, perhaps 



THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 137 

gives him an added importance in his own eyes. The presi- 
dency of societies or clubs adds further to his local impor- 
tance. 

He soon finds, when he speaks to mother's meetings and 
at church affairs, and often even to fellow teachers, that he 
does not need to think carefully or to have anything of real 
value to say. He begins to feel his local importance; he 
begins to take life easily at least twenty years before he 
has earned the right; he ceases to read and study the prob- 
lems of his work; he falls in with the local social life; and 
he gradually loses sight of the more distant goal he once 
set out to reach. Spoiled by too easy, too small, and too 
early successes, in a decade or less his possible usefulness 
for large work elsewhere has about reached the vanishing 
point. 

Personal qualities necessary. While good traming and ex- 
perience are of fundamental importance to the man who 
wishes to prepare for educational leadership, certain per- 
sonal qualities must be added to both if any large success is 
to be achieved. The man who would be a superintendent of 
schools — the educational leader of a city — must be clean, 
both in person and mind; he must be temperate, both in 
speech and act; he must be honest and square, and able to 
look men straight in the eye; and he must be possessed of a 
high sense of personal honor. He needs a good time-sense to 
enable him to save time and to transact business with dis- 
patch, and a good sense of proportion to enable him to see 
things in their proper place and relationship. He must have 
the manners and courtesy of a gentleman, without being 
flabby or weak. He must not be affected by a desire to stand 
in the community limelight, or to talk unnecessarily about 
his own accomplishments. He must avoid oracularism, the 
solemnity and dignity of an owl, and the not uncommon 
tendency to lay down the law. A good sense of humor will be 



138 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMD^ISTEATION 

found a means of saving grace here, and will many times 
keep him from taking himself too seriously. 

He must be alert, and able to get things done. This de- 
mands a good understanding of common human nature, 
some personal force, and some genuine political skill. He 
must know when and how to speak, but especially when and 
how to keep silent. He must know when and how to take 
the public into his confidence, and when not to tell what he 
desires or intends to do. He must know how to accept suc- 
cess without vainglory, and defeat without being embittered. 
He must keep a level head, so as not to be carried away by 
some new community enthusiasm, by some clever political 
trick, or by the great discovery of some wild-eyed reformer. 
He must, by all means, avoid developing a '* grouch " over 
the situation which confronts him, for a man with that atti- 
tude of mind never inspires confidence, and is always rela- 
tively ineffective. 

The qualities of leadership. He must learn to lead by rea- 
son of his larger knowledge and his contagious enthusiasm, 
rather than to drive by reason of his superior power. The 
powers and prerogatives which are guaranteed him by law he 
must know how to use wisely, and he should be able to win 
new powers and prerogatives from the board largely by rea- 
son of his ability to use them well. He must constantly re- 
member that he represents the whole community and not 
any part or fraction of it, and he must deal equal justice to 
all. As the representative of the whole community he will 
be wise not to ally himself at all closely with any faction, or 
division, or party in it. 

He must, out of his larger knowledge, see clearly what art 
the attainable goals of the school system, and how best and 
how fast to attempt to reach them. From his larger knowl- 
edge, too, he must frequently reach up out of the routine of 
school supervision and executive duties into the higher levels 



THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 139 

of educational statesmanship. As a statesman, too, he must 
know how to take advantage of time and opportunity to 
carry his educational poHcy into effect. 

By conferences, public and private, with leading citizens; 
by talks to parents at meetings at the schools; by taking the 
leaders among the teachers into his confidence; by dealing 
frankly and honestly with the press and the public; by his 
own written and spoken word, especially in his annual 
printed reports, and by inciting others to write and speak; 
and by tact and diplomacy in dealing with the members of 
his board, he must try to develop such a pubhc opinion that 
the recommendations which he makes will go through with- 
out serious opposition, and be readily accepted by the people 
of the community. He must remember, though, that Rome 
was not built in a day; that it takes a long period of educa- 
tion to accomplish any really fundamental reform; and that 
it is usually not necessary to rush important matters to an 
immediate consideration. 

It is now that the value of the long years of careful prepa- 
ration becomes apparent. It is often said that only the man 
who is master of his calling, who overruns its mere outlines 
and knows more about the details of his work than any one 
else with whom he must work, is safe. Out of his large knowl- 
edge of the details and processes of school work, gained in the 
years of apprenticeship in his calling, and out of the guid- 
ing educational philosophy which he has slowly built up for 
himself, he can see ends among the means and hope amid 
the discouragements, and be able to steer such a course 
amid the obstacles and trials and misunderstandings of 
city school control as will bring a well-thought-out educa- 
tional policy slowly but surely into reality. To such a man 
larger and larger opportunities keep constantly opening up 
ahead. 



140 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Is the statement that the superintendent of city schools is, potentially, 
if not actually, the most important officer in the employ of the people 
of a municipaUty, one that can be defended? Illustrate it. 

2. Illustrate the statement that around the superintendent the schools 
revolve, and it is he who makes or mars the system. 

3. Are the ages at which important superintendencies may be expected 
materially different from the age at which a lawyer, doctor, or engineer 
begins to achieve large success in his profession? 

4. Why are breadth of knowledge, human sympathy, and gentlemanly 
instincts so important in a superintendent of schools? 

5. Would you say that a good working educational philosophy is a founda- 
tion stone for successful administrative work? Illustrate. Why is ad- 
ministrative work likely soon to become dull and fruitless routine with- 
out such? Illustrate. 

6. During the principalship or practical-training period, would you ad- 
vise a young man: (a) To join an Elks lodge or other fraternal order? 
(6) To accept the presidency of a current-events club? (c) To accept 
the secretaryship of a local historical society? Why? 

7. What would be a good rule for a young man to make regarding speak- 

ing in public? 

8. What is the importance to an executive of (a) a good time-sense? 
(6) a good sense of proportion? (c) a good sense of humor? 

9. Illustrate what you understand to be meant by the statement that the 
superintendent represents the whole community, and hence should not 
ally himself at all closely with any faction or division or party in it. 

10. What do you understand to be meant by educational statesmanship? 
Illustrate. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Bardeen, C. W. Teaching as a Business. Bardeen, Syracuse, N.Y. 

A bright and witty description of the characteristics and personality of the common 
type of school man. Should be read by all. 

Butler, N. M. "Problems of Educational Administration"; in Educational 
Review, vol. 32, pp. 515-24. (December, 1906.) 
The fundamental problems of educational statesmanship. 
Cary, C. P. "Team Play between City Superintendent and City"; in 
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, pp. 111-16. 

Good general article on need for larger equipment and insight on the part of school 
superintendents. 

Chancellor, W^. E. Our Schools; Their Administration and Supervision. 
D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1904. 

Chapter XIII, on the educational policy of the community, and Chapter XIV, on 
education for super\nsion, contain many concrete illustrations and much that is 
suggestive. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 141 

Gorton, Charles E. "The Superintendent in Small Cities"; in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1900, pp. 222-29. 

A good statement of the work and possible usefulness of a superintendent of schools 
in a smaller city. 

Gove, Aaron. "The Trail of the Superintendent"; in Proceedings of Na- 
tional Education Association, 1900, pp. 214-22. 
The origin, growth, and problems of city school supervision. 
Jones, L. H. "The Politician and the Public Schools"; in Atlantic Monthly, 
vol. 77, pp. 810-22. (June, 1896.) 

An excellent description of the work of a superintendent who held his place because 
he was master of his calling. 

McAndrew, William. "The Plague of Personality"; in School Review, vol. 
22, pp. 315-25. (May, 1914.) 
Good on the defects of school men. 

Maxwell, William H. "The Superintendent as a Man of Affairs"; in Pro 
ceedings of National Education Association, 1904, pp. 259-64. 
A very good article on the superintendent as an educational statesman. 
Seerley, H. H. "City Supervision"; in Education, vol. xv, pp. 518-25. 
(May, 1895.) 

The professional superintendent, his work, personality, management, relationships, 
and the people and the schools. 

Thwing, Charles F. "A New Profession"; in Educational Review, vol. 15, 
pp. 26-33. (January, 1898.) 

The opportunities for usefulness of a city superintendent of schools. 

Vance, William McK. "How shall the Superintendent Measure his Own 
EflSciency?" In Proceedings of National Education Association, 1914, 
pp. 279-83. 

A good article on the essential qualities, and how to discover and improve personal 
dsfects. 



CHAPTER XI 

THREEFOLD NATURE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT'S 
WORK 

Three tj^es of service. In some of our cities the superin- 
tendent began largely as a teacher and a leader of teachers, 
and such continues to be a more or less important part of his 
work. In other cities, and most commonly, he began as the 
executive officer of the board of education, and such in some 
places he still remains. A later development, but without 
dropping these earlier functions, has been his evolution from 
a teacher and an executive into an organizer and a director 
for the schools. 

All three of these phases of the superintendent's work exist 
in every city, large or small, though in somewhat differing 
proportions in different cities. Under the first we speak of 
him as a supervisor, under the second as an executive and 
an administrator, and under the third as an organizer and a 
formulator and director of an educational pohcy. The last 
easily rises into educational statesmanship, and may develop 
into statesmanship of a high order. 

The smaller the school system the more the duties of a 
supervisor and leader of teachers are prominent, yet even in 
a small city school system a superintendent should have be- 
fore him a clearly defined educational policy for the com- 
munity, which he works slowly to bring into realization.^ As 

^ "If the superintendent is not known outside of the schoolhouses, much 
of the influence he should exert in the community is lost. He ought to be 
a leader, or at least one of the leaders of thought in his community, and a 
maker of public opinion." C. E. Gorton, in Proceedings of National Educa- 
tion Association, 1900, p. 229. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT'S WORK 143 

the school system grows, or as the superintendent goes to 
larger cities to work, the executive functions are likely to 
crowd in upon him and absorb much of his time. These are 
so easy to take up and so hard to drop that he must always 
watch that mere executive duties do not monopolize too 
large a share of his time and energy. In the larger school 
systems the supervisory aspects pass largely to subordinates, 
while the larger problems of organization, administration, 
and policy come to absorb most of the superintendent's time 
and effort. 

Time for the larger problems. Often the larger success of 
a superintendent will he in his not trying to do too much 
of any one thing. In a general way it may be said that a 
superintendent is worth most to a city when he keeps himself 
most free from detail work or routine service of any kind, and 
saves his time and energy for thinking and advising on the 
larger problems of the organization and administration of 
the schools. The modern superintendent must be more than 
a teacher of teachers, and more than merely the executive 
officer of the board of education. He must be a man of 
affairs, possessed of good common and business sense, and 
good at getting work out of other people, but keeping him- 
self as free as possible from routine service so as to have time 
to observe, to study, to think, to plan, to advise, to guide, 
and to lead. Large knowledge, broad sympathies, a clearly 
conceived educational policy, patience, perseverance, fore- 
sight, sound judgment, good perspective, and executive 
power are the qualities now in demand in any city where the 
problems are large enough to demand the full time of a su- 
perintendent of schools. To keep free time for this larger 
thinking is one of the marks of professional grasp and of 
executive skill. 

Loss of balance and perspective. To keep this balance 
in his work and perspective on his problems seems to be one 



144 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

of the greatest difficulties superintendents have to contend 
with. On all sides one sees superintendents who have lost 
all balance in their work, and who, as a result, do much less 
thinking on the larger problems of the schools than they 
should. 

Superintendent A, for example, spends so much time on 
his mail and on school statistics that he really gets little else 
done; Superintendent B is so occupied with bills and sup- 
pHes, and the general routine work of a business clerk, that 
he can scarcely find time to think; Superintendent C has 
become virtually a superintendent of buildings, and the edu- 
cational aspect of his school system has been lost sight of; 
Superintendent D is so much a teacher of teachers that he 
has taken over many of the functions of the school principals, 
and neglects the board and its problems, with the result that 
they rim the schools and he has but little authority in any 
matter; Superintendent E spends so much time on the board 
and the politicians that he is seldom seen in the schools; 
while Superintendent F has become a mere clerk for the 
board of education, running its errands and executing its 
decrees, and has lost sight both of his teachers and of the 
larger problems of the community which supports the 
schools. 

Any such one-sided development of a superintendent de- 
prives the city employing him of the largest services; inevi- 
tably results in an inferior grade of educational work and a 
lowered tone in the whole school system; and must ulti- 
mately result in a change in superintendent for the best 
interests of the community concerned. Between the three 
aspects of his work the superintendent of city schools must 
strive to preserve a proper balance. At times he must be a 
supervisor, or a teacher of teachers; at other times he must 
be an executive of the board of education; and at still other 
times he must be an organizer and a leader. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT'S WORK 145 

Let us now consider this threefold nature of the superin- 
tendent's work, doing so in the reverse of the order of devel- 
opment. 

1. The superintendent as an organizer 

One of the first duties of a new superintendent should be 
to make, as it were, a hasty mental survey of the schools and 
the community he is to serve, to discover their peculiar edu- 
cational needs, and to see how fully the school system in 
existence ministers to these needs. Out of such a survey, and 
out of his knowledge and experience, he must then plan a 
more or less definite educational policy to be followed in the 
admioistration and development of the schools. The details 
of this policy he may find it wise to keep to himseK, and he 
may need to change it from time to time. 

A policy for development. Such a policy of development 
may include many things, — the school plant, the courses of 
study, new types of schools or instruction to be provided, the 
classification of pupils, textbooks, apparatus, and supplies, 
the work of teachers or principals, the selection and pay of 
such, playgrounds, public school extension, and the general 
educational policy to be pursued in the administration of 
the school system. In all such matters the superintendent 
should take the initiative, and he must use his best judgment 
as to what points to press and what ones to hold in abeyance 
for more propitious days. 

He will be wise, too, if he unfolds the details of his policy 
to his board and to the people only about as rapidly as it can 
be comprehended and approved. For many of his more 
important ideas and plans a period of education of both his 
board and the community must be expected and provided 
for, and the more carefully this is done the less will be the 
friction occasioned when the proposal is made or the plan 
carried into effect. To neglect this important part of the 



146 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



process may result in the defeat of many meritorious and 
progressive proposals. To merely think out what is needed 
and then send a written communication to the board re- 
questing such a measure often shows relatively poor organ- 
izing skill in important matters, and is very likely to result in 
a refusal to grant the request. Persistence in such a course is 
likely to develop a habit on the part of the board of refusing 
the superintendent's requests, and such a habit is not good 
either for the authority of the superintendent or for the wel- 
fare of the schools under his control. 

Educating a board. The writer once asked a superintend- 
ent who had held his position for nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury, and who was noted for his ability to carry his board of 
education with him, what was the secret of his fine control. 
His answer can best be understood by reference to the 
following sketch, which he drew on a piece of paper as he 
answered. 



M 



Fig. 11. n^LUSTRATma THE PROCESS OP EDUCATING A SCHOOL BOARD 



I spend much time [said he] in familiarizing my board with the 
needs of the schools, and the reasons for the recommendations I 
desire to make. Sometimes this is done by taking board members 
with me for a day in the schools, sometimes it is done over a dinner 
table, and sometimes it is done by a quiet personal talk at their 
places of business or at my office. Members are thus made cogni- 



THE SUPERINTENDENT'S WORK 147 

zant of the needs of the schools and of the reasons for action before 
I make a formal recommendation to the board as a body. Through 
my annual printed reports, too, I try to educate both the board 
and the people, so that new measures, when approved, do not seem 
so very new to the community. 

Let us assume now [he continued] that the general level of my 
board of education, in its conception of what the school system 
should do and be, is represented by the level A. My conception at 
this same time is represented by the level H. 

Now, if I asked them to move at once up to my level, they not 
only would not do it, but it might awaken suspicions in their minds 
as to the soundness of my judgment and as to where I was leading 
them. 

I accordingly begin a process of education, at first to get them to 
move to the level B, but plainly tell them that, if they do, they 
must be prepared to move almost at once to C, which follows as 
a natural corollary of the move to B. I also tell them plainly that 
it will cost about so much, and show them that our finances will 
afford it. The board considers the proposal reasonable and proper, 
and before long approves of my recommendation in the matter. 
Not only do they approve of it but, thoroughly understanding it, 
they defend it for me before the public, if defense should become 
necessary. 

I now let them alone for a while, because the step to the next 
level, D, is something of an advance, and requires a reasonably long 
period of education. Still more, as E and F follow as natural corol- 
laries after D, I really have to educate them up nearly to F before 
proposing D. In course of time, however, I get D, together with 
E and F. 

About this time an election comes along, and half my board is 
new. The general average conception of the board is now back at 
D or C. Some, even, do not understand up to A. This is of course 
no time to propose new things, so the older members of my board 
and I start in on a process of educating up the new ones to the aver- 
age level we had attained before they came among us. In time, 
however, they come to understand, the level F is restored once 
more, and it soon seems possible to make the short advance to G. 
A little later, seeing that this was accepted by the people in good 
spirit, we make the next step to H. 

This whole process from A to H may have taken a number of 
years, — say three, or four, or five. But now my ideas as to what 



148 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the schools ought to do and to be have advanced to O, and I now see 
the need of more education and larger leadership. And so the 
process goes on and on, and will continue to go on through all time. 

Importance of such service. It is by means of such careful 
work as this that the superintendent must show his skill as 
an organizer and director of the educational affairs of a city.^ 
It is primarily the business of a superintendent to think and 
to propose, and primarily the business of a board to sit in 
judgment on his proposals. A wise superiutendent wiQ wel- 
come and value the honest criticism of the broad-minded 
members of the board with which he is associated. These 
men see the proposal much as the community will see it, and 
often from quite a different angle from that at which the 
superintendent views it. A board can be of real service here 
in pointing out errors lq policies and mistakes in judgment, 
and if the superintendent can answer their objections and 
thoroughly convince them of the desirability and feasibility 
of what he proposes, he has secured able advocates when it 
comes to dealing with the public later on. 

Such work requires time, the results are often discourag- 
ingly slow in coming, but it is fruitful service when dealing 
with the representatives of the public. It is in such work that 
a superintendent of schools often renders his most useful 
service to a community, and the importance of eliminating 
routine work and of keepiug time free for observing and 
thinking can hardly be over -emphasized in speaking to 

^ "As chief administrator of the system, the superintendent has a policy, 
or a general plan of administration. There is something to be accomplished ; 
there must be careful, well-formulated plans for its accomplishment. These 
are not simply present-tense plans but rather a policy which looks far 
into the future, regardless of the short tenure of his contact. He must 
plan as though for a life-tenure; it is only by means of such plans that he can 
avoid time service. He has in his mind's eye the growth and development 
of five years, of ten years, of substantial progress; an ideal, if you please, 
toward which he strives; an ideal which year by year is to become school 
life and school atmosphere." (Superintendent M. G. Clark, in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1913, p. 304.) 



THE SUPERINTENDENT'S WORK 149 

young men about to go into the work. If the superintendent 
is to render valuable service as an organizer and director for 
a school system, he must develop and slowly carry out a 
thoroughly sound and constructive policy for the improve- 
ment of educational conditions in the community he serves. 

2. The superintendent as executive 

As the executive officer of the board of education and the 
chief executive of the school system, the superintendent 
plays a somewhat different role. Both by the law and by the 
rules and regulations of the board he has little authority, 
except in matters in which the board has seen fit to dele- 
gate authority to him, yet he will not be of much force as a 
superintendent unless he can come to exercise rather large 
powers.^ 

Proper personal and oflSicial relations. The relations of the 
superintendent with the board and its committees call for 
alertness, diplomacy, respect for authority, good judgment, 
practical business sense, frankness combined with courtesy, 
and courage and conviction at times when courage and con- 
viction are the proper characteristics to exhibit. At differ- 
ent times he will be director, advisor, petitioner, and serv- 
itor. He will obtain little power for any length of time by 

^ "The superintendent is the executive agent of the school ccMumittee, 
chosen to sec that their decisions are carried out and that the school ma- 
chine runs smoothly and effectively; but, if he is worthy of confidence, he 
will find his greatest opportimity in guiding by his advice the counsels of 
the school committee. This influence on the school policy of a community 
is what makes him an important official and differentiates him from a mere 
clerk. He should not be officious, neither should he be afraid to give his 
opinion; he should not attempt to overawe his employers, but he should 
realize that they expect him to advocate the best things. lie should keep 
the committee informed on all matters, realizing that the more complete 
his influence fhc greater will be the power lodged in him. A school com- 
mittee will usually allow a worthy superintendent to do almost anything he 
wishes, provided he first asks their permission." (C. A. Brodeur [see ref- 
erences], p. 558.) 



150 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

driving, nor wiU he obtain much if any power by sitting still 
and looking down his nose. The pubUc admires courage and 
firmness, when the grounds for such are good, but even more 
it dislikes mere aggressiveness and an arbitrary assumption 
of authority. Between these two extremes, sometimes near 
to one and sometimes near to the other, the superintendent 
must steer his course.^ The danger of the young man is over- 
aggressiveness; the danger of the old man is passive accept- 
ance. 

In his relations with his board as its executive officer he 
must avoid over-zeal and personal feeling in the matter of his 
recommendations. He should familiarize the members with 
the needs of the schools and the reasons for his recommenda- 
tions, but he would better see them turned down than to 
lobby or set up combinations to carry them through. Still 
less should he lobby to elect or defeat members, or to carry 
or defeat committee reports. In all such matters he will do 
well to stand on the wisdom of his recommendations and 
the honesty of his purposes, and, if necessary, accept defeat. 
Perhaps, after all, he is not all-wise, and the judgment of his 
board may be better than his. 

In any case, he should refuse to accept opposition as per- 
sonal, even though it may be so. Neither should he harbor 
grudges, or keep up fights after the time for fighting is past. 
Any man of business capacity cares little as to whether 

^ Superintendent Blodgett (see references) gives seven rules for the 
guidance of a superintendent in dealing with situations, as follows: — 

1. Know your exact relations to every feature of your work. 

2. Get close to the heart of every situation. 

3. Take a tenable position on all debatable questions, and speak plainly 
^v^thout being pugnacious. 

4. Be loyal to the decisions of those in authority. 

5. Have fixed places of responsibility and have that responsibility met. 

6. Magnify and dignify the office of school principal and supervisor. 

7. With your full corps of workers establish relations founded on cor- 
dial frankness, plain speech, and sympathy. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT'S WORK 151 

people agree with him on matters of policy or procedm*e, if 
they are honest and fair about it, so far as personal friendship 
is concerned. Often a superintendent may have a sincere 
admirer in some lawyer or doctor or banker on his board who 
may feel that he must oppose certain of the superintendent's 
plans. This is a common experience of managers in the busi- 
ness world, and there is no reason why superintendents of 
schools should be exceptions in such matters.^ 

Mutual trust and confidence. In his relations with his 
board the superintendent should strive, by his acts, to de- 
velop a feeling of mutual trust and confidence. Usually this 
is not hard to do with any board which has the good of the 
schools at heart. Between the superintendent and his board 
it is important that there exist the most complete and sat- 
isfactory understanding. Such should exist from the first. 
Each should trust the other, and should counsel together on 
all important matters. The superintendent should watch 
carefully that no act of his shall tend to destroy this good 
understanding. 

One important means by which the superintendent may 
establish such confidence is to show that he understands 
thoroughly the details of his work. He must be able to ad- 
vise the board inteUigently, and be willing to assume and to 
distribute responsibility. He must know intimately the de- 
tails of questions likely to come before his board, and be able 
to give simple reasons why things should or should not be 
done. 

On many matters he must decide and act himself, and 

1 "The difference between the attitude of the manager in private life 
and the manager of a school system, under such circumstances, is very 
pronounced. There are but few corporations or firms which would not in- 
stantly accept the resignation of a manager if he showed petulance or irrita- 
tion, or if he gave the board its choice of alternatives — i.e.. Either pass 
my request or accept my resignation." (F. A. Fitzpatrick, in Educational 
Review, p. 250. October, 1899.) 



252 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTKATION 

without bothering the board. On questions of policy he will 
need to consult his board carefully, but to be continually 
bringing up matters of detail for a ruling or a decision is an 
almost sure way to lose the confidence of a businesslike 
board. To say to a board, when his opinion is asked, that it 
can decide the matter as well as he can, or when questioned 
about the schools to reply that he does not know, and leave 
the board without iuformation or to find out for itseK, is 
shortsighted and foolish. Once train a board in this way 
and it will soon be deciding important matters and taking 
important action without consulting the superintendent 
at all.i 

Appealing to the community. If, as sometimes happens, a 
board does not have the best interests of the schools at heart, 
and the superintendent, after personal conferences and the 
use of all reasonable diplomacy, is unable to stop action 
clearly against the best interests of the schools, then he 
should remember that he represents the community, as well 
as the school board; that his authority with them in such 
matters is really joint; and that the people expect and have 
a right to know his individual opinion on important issues. 
In such cases he should not hesitate to present his point of 
view freely and positively, in open board meeting, and should 
refuse to be smothered up in a secret session or by committee 
action. The stronger the confidence which the community 
has come to have in his good sense, honesty of purpose, fair- 
ness, and sound judgment, the heartier will be their sup- 
port of him should he ever find it necessary to take such ac- 

1 It may be said that a superintendent should never shirk any proper 
responsibility or decline any proper power which a board offers to give him 
even though the matter be a very unimportant one, and one which the 
board members could decide as well as he. The assumption of power and 
responsibility, relieving members, and the using of such power and re- 
sponsibility wisely and well, creates confidence and leads to larger and larger 
grants. The man who can and is willing to do things is the man who will find 
plenty of things to do. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT'S WORK 153 

tion.^ His deep conviction as to what is best for the schools 
must guide him in such matters, but he must not sacrifice 
his independence or yield his written or unwritten rights on 
really fundamental questions of policy or procedure. 

Relations with the community. One of the most impor- 
tant assets of a superintendent in the prosecution of any 
and all phases of his work is the confidence of the better ele- 
ments of the community in his fairness, sound judgment, and 
professional knowledge. He should know his community 
and be able to feel its pulse and express its wants, and the 
community should know him and believe in his integrity and 
honesty of purpose. This contact, fortunately, he has many 
opportunities to establish, and the more important of these 
opportunities he should embrace.^ 

As the head of the school system of the community he holds 
a position of particular local prominence, and his work as an 
administrator brings him into daily contact with parents and 
citizens. Every contact is an opportunity to leave a good 
impression, and to add something to the strength of his 
control of the schools. With perhaps seventy-five per cent of 

1 "While theoretically the city superintendent is but the executive officer 
of the board of education, practically, wherever his lot is cast, he is the chief 
power. Boards of education often are composed of members who are ac- 
tively and persistently engaged in other interests. They are not consulted, 
and ought not to be consulted, in the detailed management of the schools. 
It is seldom that difficulties occur in the superintendent's life that have their 
rise in the board of education. The board is but a reflex representative of the 
people; seldom independent or beyond the influence of public opinion, even 
when public opinion is rash and unreliable. It follows from this that the 
administration of a given superintendent depends little upon the board of 
education, but upon the character of the schools on the one side and the 
opinion of the people on the other. (J. M. Greenwood, in Educational Re- 
view, vol. 18, p. 375, November, 1899.) 

2 In addition to the few means mentioned here, the annual printed re- 
port covering the work of the schools should not be forgotten. This is 
referred to more at length in Chapter XXVI. Rightly used, the annual 
report can be made of very large importance in the education of a com- 
munity. 



154 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

those whom he meets from day to day in his official capacity 
it wiU be their only meeting, so that it is important that the 
impression made as to his personality, education, tact, and 
good judgment be as favorable as possible. If well used, this 
daily contact may prove a source of much community 
strength; if not, it wiR ultimately prove his undoing. 

So far as is possible every conference with a parent or a 
citizen, either at the superintendent's office or elsewhere, 
should add something to the community respect for the 
superintendent and the community behef in the system of 
public instruction which he represents. To this end the 
superintendent must not be arbitrary, impatient, unreason- 
able, personally aggrieved, or any of a number of other 
things which superintendents too frequently are and do. A 
pleasant word, a promise to investigate, absence of personal 
pique, consideration for the other's point of \dew, and a 
certain democratic simplicity and directness, frequently 
make friends of those who came only to complain.^ 

The work of the schools, particularly the many little special 
occasions, also offer opportunities for the superintendent to 
add to the community's good opinion of their schools. A 
few well-chosen words, not too long, and not about " my 
policies " or " my ideas," but of a character designed to give 
the community a higher appreciation of the importance of 
what the teachers are doing and the work of the schools in 
the community, can be made of much value in developing 
community support for future educational policies. What 
the superintendent has to say must be simple, straightfor- 
ward, constructive, and well expressed. To apologize to an 

^ " The superintendent should be large enough in spirit to be above petty 
quarrels and jealousies, fair enough to work with others even when no per- 
sonal gain is the result, sympathetic enough to see matters from the point 
of view of teachers, pupils, and parents, and democratic enough to recognize 
the just claims of all with whom he has to do." (C. A. Brodeur [see ref- 
erence], p. 558.) 



THE SUPERINTENDENT'S WORK 155 

audience for not being prepared, or to scold them for their 
shortcomings, are two things which should be studiously- 
avoided. The conservatism and ofttimes the ignorance of a 
community he must himseK accept as perfectly natural, and 
without complaining about it. People are by nature con- 
servative, and it is not only the duty but also the oppor- 
tunity of the superintendent to educate them up to the 
larger needs of their schools.^ 

3. The superintendent as supervisor 

The third phase of the superintendent's work is that which 
brings him into close relations with special supervisors, 
principals, teachers, and pupils. All of the other types of 
work are in a sense preliminary to this third function, though, 
as school systems grow larger and larger, the superintendent 
must, of necessity, delegate more and more of this work to 
subordinates. Still, however large the school system may 
become, the knowledge and influence of the superintendent 
must reach down through all of the complicated machinery 
of school organization and administration and vitalize the 
work of the teachers in the schools. His broader professional 
knowledge and his larger insight into educational needs must, 
in some way, find expression in the daily work of teachers 

^ "A well-regulated school system, managed by professional educators, 
is always ahead of the community at large in both method and outlook. 
Now, unless school needs and school aims are understood by the people, a 
gulf widens between them which is finally bridged only by criticisms and 
protests signed 'taxpayer.' The superintendent should lend a hand to any 
undertaking which dignifies his office, or which seeks to establish points of 
contact between the schools and the public they serve. If there be parents' 
meetings, he had better attend; if there be mothers' clubs, he had better 
speak when asked; if the Sunday-School teachers wish an address, he had 
better give it; if some one asks the rather dubious question 'What do you 
do anyway? ' he had better explain himself in simple, indisputable terms, so 
that mothers and fathers shall grow to feel that no community should be 
without him." (Alice E. Reynolds, in Proceedings of National Education 
Association, 1904, p. 270.) 



156 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

and pupils if his highest mission as a superintendent is to 
be fulfilled. 

This phase of the superintendent's labors so clearly belongs 
to his services as the head of the instructional work of the 
schools that further consideration of it is deferred to Chapter 
XIII. 

Dangers faced by the superintendent. In carrying on 
his work, in its threefold aspect, the superintendent of 
schools faces certain dangers, other than those so far pointed 
out. 

He must not lose confidence in himseK, for out of confi- 
dence in himself come almost all his other powers. Such con- 
fidence, if it is of the right kind, comes largely from a sense 
of mastery of the details of his calling. The world always 
steps aside to let a man pass who knows where he is going, 
but it often crushes the man who does not know whither he 
is bound. He must not repose too much confidence in other 
people. To trust subordinates and friends wisely, but not 
too much, is something he must learn. Sustained by the 
justice of his cause, and guided by an educational philoso- 
phy that gives point and direction to his administrative 
labors, he must not take as personal the criticisms, reverses, 
and even the humiliations of which he must expect and ac- 
cept his full share. He must not underestimate to himseK the 
value of his services, nor must he expect the people to ap- 
preciate fully what he is doing for them. A superintendent 
of schools works distinctly for the next generation; without 
becoming egotistical or autocratic, his own personal sense of 
the importance of his work must be his own greatest reward. 
He must avoid, too, almost above all else, a low physical 
tone due to overwork, wasted energy, fretting over condi- 
tions he cannot help, or other causes, for no executive can 
do his best work when he is in poor physical condition. His 
exercise, his food, his sleep, and his leisure he must guard 



THE SUPERINTENDENT'S WORK 157 

carefully, for out of these, as it were, come his balance, his 
perspective, his insight, his reliability, and his reserve force 
for the emergencies of his daily work. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Explain how educational organization may evolve into educational 
statesmanship. Illustrate. 

2. In what way does a clearly defined educational policy serve to trans- 
form the details of administration from routine to constructive serv- 
ice? 

3. Illustrate how a superintendent may become so busy with administra- 
tive details that he may have no time left for real constructive service. 

4. Why is a man who actually works less likely to be worth more? 

5. Why should a superintendent not tell his plans too much in advance? 
8. What should be a superintendent's relations with the local newspapers? 

7. Should a superintendent take complaints and criticism as personal and 
feel hurt? Illustrate. 

8. Illustrate your conception of the process of educating a board and a 
committee to understand the need of 

(a) a class for the oral instruction of deaf children; 

(b) a class for subnormal children; 

(c) a class for supernormal children; 

(d) the establishment of an intermediate school, to include the 
seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, to be taught by the depart- 
mental plan, with specially selected teachers; 

assuming that no such schools exist in your vicinity, and that the 
board and the people are unfamiliar with these educational ideas. 

9. For Fig. 11 make out a series of moves to correspond with the dif- 
ferent letters, preserving the proportion and relative sequence of the 
steps as explained, such as might exist in the plans of a superintendent 
for the development of his school system. 

10. Illustrate how a superintendent can utilize opportunities to educate 
the community in connection with school happenings and events. 
What kind of topics should he talk about? 

11. Illustrate how a superintendent's daily contact with people may 

(a) add strength to his position and control of the schools; 
(6) prove his ultimate undoing. 

12. Distinguish between "feeling the community's pulse" for construc- 
tive work, and "keeping one's ear to the ground" to know what to 
do. 

13. Illustrate, by concrete cases, the sentence, "At different times the 
superintendent will be director, advisor, petitioner, and servitor," in 
his relations with his board. 

14. Explain the basis for the statement that the longer a superintendent 



158 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

has been in a position the more details he should settle without con- 
sulting his board. On what assumption is such a statement based? 

15. Give three illustrations for each of the three main phases of a superin- 
tendent's activity, namely, as organizer, as administrator, and as 
executive. 

16. After six days of work for the schools, should a superintendent refuse 
to teach a Sunday-School class on Sunday? 

17. What kind of topics might a superintendent talk on, and what kind of 
a speech should he make, in addressing 

(a) a parents' meeting? 

(b) a mothers' club? 

(c) a Sunday-School-teacher group? 

(d) a Chamber-of-Commerce luncheon? 

18. Suppose that 3'ou are a city superintendent of schools, and that you are 
present at a meeting called to consider a proposal to build a new school. 
An objector, in the course of a talk, says that the superintendent is 
responsible for the proposition, is an unnecessary official, and says, in 
closing, that he would like to know "What he does, anyway?" How 
would you answer him? 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Blodgett, A. B. "The Most Effective Use of the Superintendent's Time"; 
in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1903, pp. 224-28. 

An excellent article on the work of a superintendent. How to save time, and how to 
fix responsibility and get work done. 

Brodeur, C. A. "School Supervision"; in Report of U.S. Commissioner of 
Education, 1902, vol. i, pp. 556-60. 
A good brief outline of the supverintendent's work and the possibilities of his position* 

Chancellor, W. E. Our Schools; Their Administration and Supervision. 
D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1904. 

Chapter III, Part 11, on the aflFairs of the superintendent, and Chapter V on the 
superintendent, contain many concrete illustrations and much that is suggestive. 

Denfield, R. E. "The Superintendent as an Organizer and an Executive"; 
in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1900, pp. 287-96. 

An excellent article, contrasting these two phases of a superintendent's work, and 
offering many practical suggestions. 

DeWeese, T. A. "Two Years' Progress in the Chicago Schools"; in Edu- 
cational Review, vol. 24, pp. 325-37. (November, 1902.) 

An excellent article on tactful cooperation between the board of education and the 
superintendent of schools. 

Fitzpatrick, F. A. "Minor Problems of the School Superintendent"; in 
Educational Review, vol. 18, pp. 234-51. (October, 1899.) 

An excellent article. Describes many of the common mistakes of school superintend- 
ente which ultimately result in their undoing. 



THE SUPERINTENDENT'S WOKE 159 

Gorton, C. E. "The Superintendent in Small Cities"; in Proceedings of 
National Education Association, 1900, pp. 222-29. 
A good general article on the superintendent's work and influence. 
Greenwood, J. M. "The Superintendent and the Board of Education"; in 
Educational Review, vol. 18, pp. 363-77. (November, 1899.) 

A good general article on the establishment and maintenance of proper relationships. 

Symposium. "City School Supervision"; five articles in Educational Re- 
view, as follows: — 
I. Gove, Aaron, vol. ii, pp. 256-61. (October, 1891.) 
II. Greenwood, J. M., vol. ii, pp. 362-65. (November, 1891.) 

III. Balliet, T. M., vol. ii, pp. 482-86. (December, 1891.) 

IV. Tarbell, H. S., vol. in, pp. 65-69. (January, 1892.) 
V. Harris, W. T., vol. iii, pp. 167-72. (February, 1892.) 

Five good articles. The last is in the nature of a summary and an amplification of 
the preceding four. 

White, E. E. "The Authority of the School Superintendent"; in Pro- 
ceedings of National Education Association, 1899, pp. 314-20. 

A general article on the growth of the powers of the superintendent, and oa present 
needs. 



CHAPTER XII 



CITY SCHOOL DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION 

Size and distribution of cities. There were, in 1918, 2401 
cities and towns of over 2500 inhabitants in the United 
States, which made statistical returns to the United States 
Commissioner of Education. A tabulation of these returns 
shows the following distribution of the cities as to size, to- 
gether with the number of superintendents and assistant 
superintendents of schools for such, by groups, together 
with the number of special supervisors and school princi- 
pals employed, the number of different schools maintained 
in each group of cities, and the totals for each of the items: — 





Number 

of such 

cities 

reporting 


Number employed (1918) 


Size of cities 
(Estimate for 1918) 


Superintend- 
ents and 
assistant su- 
perintendents 


Special 
supervisors 


School 
principals 


Over 100,000 

30,000 to 100,000 

10,000 to 30,000 

5,000 to 10,000 

2,500 to 5,000 


51 

141 

420 

627 

1162 


220 
177 
447 
627 
1041 


3988 
1812 
1555 

772 
720 


4501 
3306 
4302 
4124 
5013 


Totals 


2401 


2512 


8847 


21,246 







Calculating averages for these same groups of cities, we 
get the following average distribution of superintendents, 
assistant superintendents, special supervisors, and school 
principals combined, based on both the number of teachers 
employed and the number of pupils in average daily at- 
tendance for each group. 



SCHOOL DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION 161 





Total number 

of supervisory 

officers 

employed 


Total 

number 
of teachers 
employed 


Ratio of supervisory officers to 


Size of cities 
(Estimate for 1918) 


Teachers 
employed 


Pupils in 

average daily 

attendance 


Over 100,000 

30,000 to 100,000 

10,000 to 30,000 

5,000 to 10,000 

2,500 to 5,000 


8,709 
5,295 
6,304 
5,523 
6,774 


99,412 
42,245 
40,495 
28,991 
30,239 


1 to 11 
1 to 8 
Ito 6 
1 to 5 
1 to 4 


1 to 303 
1 to 159 
1 to 168 
1 to 140 
1 to 116 


Totals 


32,605 


241,382 


Ito 8 


1 to 211 







From the above tables we see that the 2401 special-type 
large school districts which we know as city school dis- 
tricts — out of a total of somewhere between 300,000 and 
350,000 school districts of all kinds in the United States — 
employed approximately an average of 15 supervisory oflS- 
eers of all kinds for each city. These 2401 cities also em- 
ployed 39 per cent of all the teachers in the public schools 
of the United States, and enrolled approximately 29 per 
cent of all the pupils enrolled in public day schools. The 
special character of the problems of organization and admin- 
istration in the city school districts will be apparent from 
these tables. The 51 cities which had in 1918 over 100,000 
inhabitants have an even more special character. Though 
constituting a little more than 2 per cent of the total 
number of cities, these 51 nevertheless employed over 24 
per cent of the supervisory officers and 40 per cent of the 
teachers employed in the 2401 cities, and enrolled 43 per 
cent of the pupils enrolled in city public day schools. 

The small city school system. It will be seen from the 
tables just given, too, that nearly three-fourths (74.5 per 
cent) of the cities of the United States had less than 10,000 
inhabitants in 1918, and that 2209 of the 2401 (92.0 per 
cent) had less than 30,000 inhabitants. It is in these smaller 



162 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRA.TION 

and often rapidly growing cities that the problems of organ- 
ization and administration have to be solved by the largest 
number of superintendents, and often imder conditions which 
are far from ideal. It will be seen also that the superintend- 
ents in these smaller cities have to work with the least help, 
and must, of necessity, be superintendents of a somewhat 
general and undifferentiated type. All of the administrative 
problems that in a large city are divided among a number of 
supervisory officers, in so far as these problems touch a 
small city, must here be handled by the superintendent and 
the board of education acting almost alone. The board, in 
such cities, is usually in much more intimate touch with the 
schools than is the case in the larger cities, and attempts to 
handle many problems which in larger and better organized 
cities are left to executive officers. The superintendent, too, 
is supposed to be more of a teacher and a leader of teachers 
than is the case in the larger cities. 

Still, all phases of the problems of organization and ad- 
ministration and supervision, in the course of time, come to 
the door of the superintendent of these smaller cities, and 
in many ways it requires as high a degree of professional and 
political skill to be a successful superintendent in a small 
city as in a larger one. The chief difference lies in that the 
problems are smaller in scale, and that the people are not so 
critical if the superintendent is unprogressive or incompetent, 
while the demand for real educational statesmanship is 
much less prominent. The personal and political conditions, 
on the other hand, and the educational conservatism of the 
people may be much more marked and much more trying to 
a man who knows than in a larger city. 

The comprehensive type of superintendent. Since almost 
every type of problem in organization, administration, and 
supervision will, in time, present itself to the superintendent 
in a smaller city for solution, he must of necessity be an all- 



SCHOOL DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION 163 

round man, conversant with the different phases of his work, 
and able to do many things rapidly and well. Good general 
arid professional training, and good experience in an elemen- 
tary-school principalship, will prove of much value to a 
young school superintendent at such a time. 

At one time he must be an organizer and planner for the 
development of the system, often looking into the future be- 
yond the vision of the teachers, the board, or the people. 
At another time he must be an expert on school organiza- 
tion, bringing to teachers, principals, the board, and the 
people the best experience of other cities. At another time 
he must be an expert on the making and administration of 
a course of study, slowly educating those associated with 
him up to his larger point of view. At another time he must 
be an expert investigator and tester of the work of the 
schools, and the progress of the pupils therein. At another 
time he must be an expert on the details of schoolhouse con- 
struction, and on the proper care and maintenance of the 
school plant. At another time he must be an expert on play- 
grounds and playground work. At another time he must be 
the real authority back of the attendance officer, adminis- 
tering the law, and protecting the educational rights of the 
children. At another time he must be protecting these same 
rights in the employment, dismissal, or safeguarding from 
injustice of teachers. At another time he is again voicing the 
need of the children, or protecting them along the line of 
health control. At another time he is a business man, look- 
ing after purchases, budgets, and the larger problems of ed- 
ucational finance. At another time he is a petitioner before 
the board, asking for some improvement in conditions, some 
new grant of power, or some change in ruling, and following 
this he is the servant of the board, seeing that its decisions 
are carried out. At another time he is an administrator, 
looking after the hundred and one little details of » daily 



164 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

school administration, — dictating letters, meeting people, 
smoothing out difficulties, ehminating friction, and adding 
to the confidence of the people in their schools. At other 
times he is a supervisor of teachers, directing them, inspir- 
ing them to larger ser\dce, and extending helpful supervi- 
sion to them. 

Dangers of such a position. Such a superintendent, if he 
is a real superintendent, lives a busy life, and the constant 
danger he faces, aside from exhaustion from overwork or 
worry, is that of losing his balance and perspective amid 
the many problems of his work. To do so means to become 
a onesided superintendent — an office clerk, a purchasing 
and business agent, a building superintendent, an office ad- 
ministrator, or merely a supervisor of instruction. Of all the 
one-sided developments, that of becoming a mere supervisor 
of instruction is the least dangerous, because in a small city 
this is the most important of all his services. 

It is easy in a small city school system, where there is 
little professional competition and the community stand- 
ards for success are low, to develop into an office man, pick- 
ing up easy routine work and neglecting more important 
functions, and later become a political superintendent, with 
ultimate loss of position ahead. A board of education and 
a community have a right to demand that their superintend- 
ent shall be a student of educational administration and 
problems, and that he shall keep himself informed as to 
progress elsewhere; ^ and the superintendent, in turn, has 

1 A new superintendent in a city of about 20,000 inhabitants was asked 
by the board of education if he desired to suggest any changes in their 
printed rules and regulations. Among a number of suggestions he offered 
the following, which was heartily approved by the board : — 

"Sec. 23. The superintendent of schools shall be expected to be a student 
of educational theory and practice, and shall be expected to acquaint him- 
self with progress being made elsewhere, in order that the board of educa- 
tion and the teachers in the schools may be advised as to the best methods 
and plans for improving the education of the children in the schools. To 



SCHOOL DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION 165 

a right to demand of his board enough freedom from routine 
and other service to enable him to have some free time for 
reading, study, and visitation, that he may keep abreast of 
progress in theory and practice.^ 

Organization in a small city. The scheme of organization 
in a small city is exceedingly simple. The people, under the 
provisions of the state law, elect the school board as their 
representatives, and the school board and its committees 
virtually conduct the schools. The power and the authority 
which a superintendent has legally, under most of our pres- 
ent-day laws, is usually very small. By knowing his work, 
and by the exercise of tact, courtesy, and good judgment, a 
superintendent can often come to exercise, usually by tacit 
consent, rather large powers in the organization and admin- 
istration of the schools. When he leaves, his successor prob- 
ably will have to prove himself and to establish a similar 
degree of confidence in his ability and good judgment be- 
fore he can succeed to the powers exercised by the former 
man. A young man should expect to do this; it is good train- 
ing for him to do it. 

The place of the superintendent in the scheme. The 
proper scheme of organization in a small city is represented 
by Figure 12. Acting in conjunction with the board and its 
committees, the superintendent manages and directs the 
schools. He acts as the secretary and executive ojfficer of the 
board of education, executes its decisions, acts as its rep- 
resentative before the schools, the people of the community 

this end the superintendent shall be permitted, in his discretion, to set aside 
time for personal study, and may also, in his discretion, absent himseK from 
the city for not to exceed three days at any one time for the purpose of ob- 
serving school organization and instruction in other cities." 

^ A number of our cities now pay a part or all of the expenses of their 
superintendent, in addition to giving him leave of absence for six weeks on 
full pay, for attendance at summer sessions of the larger universities. This 
is a good investment for a city to make; the gain in knowledge, interest, and 
professional enthusiasm on the part of the superintendent more than com- 
pensates for the small extra outlay. 



166 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



and the State, and keeps the board and the people of the 
community informed as to needs and conditions. Under a 
proper form of organization, as shown by the Hnes, the 
board and its committees act only through him, and mem- 
bers of the school department communicate officially with 
members of the board only through his office.^ 

His office force consists of a good business and office clerk, 
and a stenographer. The clerk looks after office matters in 
his absence, makes purchases, fills requisitions, checks up 
bills, distributes books and supplies to the schools, attends 
to most of the routine correspondence, takes charge of the 
minutes, and notifies all parties concerned of the official 
actions of the board of education. The stenographer, in ad- 
dition to handling the official mail, mimeographs circulars, 
files documents, answers the telephone, and does necessary 
messenger service. 

With his school principals and the two special supervisors, 
the superintendent must supervise the work of the schools. 
In a city system of fifty to seventy-five teachers this will 
naturally form a very important part of his services, and 
in such a system he should strive to become an expert at 
such work. He must look after the proper education and 

^ The following may be taken to represent the school system shown in 
Figure 12: — 



Employees 
1 superintendent of schools. 
1 supervisor of primary work. 
1 supervisor of drawing, 

1 high-school principal. 

4 elementary-school principals. 
9 high-school teachers. 
28 elementary-school teachers. 

2 kindergarten teachers. 

1 manual-training teacher. 

1 cooking teacher, 

1 ungraded-room teacher. 

50 



Scope of system 

1 high school. 

2 medium-sized elementary schools with 

a kindergarten in each. 
2 smaller elementarj' schools. 
1 manual-training center. 
1 cooking-center, in one of the larger 

buildings. 
1 ungraded room, in one of the larger 

buildings. 

OMce force 
1 office and business clerk. 
1 attendance officer. 
1 stenographer. 



SCHOOL DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION 167 

inspiration of his principals and teachers, the coordination 
of the work of the schools, the administration of the course 
of study, the educational development of the school system. 



People of tlie State 
[represented in the Legislature 



State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction 



Countj- Superintendent 
of Schools 



Business 
Committee 
of the Board 



X 



Educational 
Committee 
of the Board 



Business and 
Office Clerk 



I Stenographer I 




Kindergarten 
Teachers 



FlQ. 12. PLAN OF EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR A SMALL 
CITY SCHOOL SYSTEM, AND SHOWING PROPER RELATIONSHIPS 

This plan would apply to a city school system employing 
from about 40 to about 100 teachers 



the work of special teachers, and the work of the attendance 
officer. While doing this he must not lose sight of the other 
aspects of his work and the other problems of his schools. 
E2q)ansion as the city grows. As the city supervised grows 



168 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

in size, the school system expands, more and more teachers 
are employed, and new schools and new types of schools are 
organized, the administrative organization must, of neces- 
sity, be changed and expanded to enable the board and the 
superintendent to handle properly the work of the larger 
school system. Committee action should now decrease in 
amount and in importance, the dependence on executive 
officers should increase, and the delegated authority of the 
superintendent and of the heads of the large administrative 
departments should be materially increased. With the in- 
crease of the educational and business work, executive offi- 
cers should replace committees, and the latter should tend 
to disappear altogether. In all medium-sized and large cities, 
standing committees of the board of education should be 
prohibited by law, as such serve chiefly to obstruct the 
proper work of the board's executive officers. All that 
the usual standing committees now do could be done better 
and done more expeditiously by the regularly employed 
executive officers of the board. It will be noticed that in 
Figure 13 standing committees of the board are indicated 
as having but a doubtful place in the organization, while in 
Figure 14 they are not to be found at all. 

The business and office clerk will gradually evolve into a 
school-board clerk or a business manager, and will be given 
oversight now not only of all business and clerical matters 
previously attended to, but also oversight of the janitors, 
architects, contractors, engineers, plumbers, and workmen 
of various types employed about the school plant. He will 
also keep all accounts and attend to all financial details for 
the school district. His office force will increase, and the 
superintendent will now need an intelligent, dependable 
stenographer and office secretary to attend to his mail, see 
his callers, take charge of his office during his absence, and 
attend to many of the details of his work. 



SCHOOL DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION 



169 



On the educational side the number of special supervisors 
will increase, the attendance department will become better 
organized, and a health supervisor and a school nurse or two 
will be added to the special corps. ^ The number of school 
buildings will increase, and some of the principalships will 
evolve into quite responsible positions. Certain special- 
type schools, such as a day school for the oral instruction of 
the deaf, a parental school, classes for over-age and back- 
ward children, and perhaps a vocational day or evening 
school, will be added. Perhaps a central intermediate school 
will be organized, to cover the work of the seventh, eighth, 
and ninth grades, and organized on the departmental rather 
than on the grade-room plan. 

1 The following may be taken to represent the school system shown in 
Figure 13: — 

Scope of system 
1 high school. 

1 intermediate school. 
4 large elementary schools. 

2 medium-sized elementary schools. 
2 small elementary schools. 
8 kindergarten classes. 
2 manual training, cooking, and sewing 

buildings, in connection with the inter- 
mediate and the high school. 

6 ungraded rooms, one in connection with 
each larger elementary-school building. 

1 class for the oral instruction of the deaf. 

1 parental school. 

1 day vocational school. 



Employeet 

1 superintendent of schools. 

1 assistant superintendent, for the study of 
work and product. (Virtually an effi- 
ciency expert.) 

1 supervisor of primary work. (Virtually an 
assistant superintendent of schools.) 

1 health supervisor. 

5 special supervisors. (Drawing, music and 

expression, constructional activities, 
home-life activities, and play activities.) 
1 high-school principal. 

1 intermediate-school principal. 

6 elementary-school principals, who do not 

teach. 

2 elementary-school principals, who teach. 
25 high-school teachers. 

20 intermediate-school teachers. 
95 elementary-school teachers. 

8 kindergarten teachers. 

4 manual-training teachers. 

4 cooking teachers. 

4 sewing teachers. 

2 school nurses. 

4 playground teachers. 

6 ungraded-room teachers. 

2 parental-school teachers. 

1 oral-deaf teacher. 

6 vocational-school teachers. 



Office force 

1 clerk and business manager. 

2 attendance officers. 
1 bookkeeper. 

3 stenographers and clerks. 

1 janitor (acting as head janitor). 



Architects and engineers employed as 
needed. 



200 



170 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Proper administrative organization for the larger city. 
The business and educational organization will now become 
more complicated, and as properly carried out is represented 
by the drawing (Figure 13) inserted here. As before, the 
lines and position indicate the direction of authority, and 
the central position of the superintendent of schools for the 
city will again be apparent. 

A man of larger grasp will now be required. The old 
superintendent, who has grown up with the system, unless 
he has more than kept pace with it, may need to be super- 
seded by some one better able to handle the larger educa- 
tional problems. The man in command now must be one 
who can quickly sort out essentials from non-essentials, and 
one who can think and act quickly and relatively accurately. 
He must be able to exercise a supervisory oversight over 
many things, without getting lost in the details of any one 
matter. More than before it is the business of the superin- 
tendent to think and to plan, and, even more than before, 
must he know what ought to be done and be able to state 
clearly and convincingly the reasons for his proposals. 

More real leadership is now required than in the smaller 
school system. A larger vision, too, is now demanded. 
There will still be plenty of routine service to be looked after, 
but, to a degree, routine previously handled must now be 
passed down to subordinates, the superintendent merely 
exercising supervisory oversight to see that the routine is 
properly looked after, while he applies his energy and best 
thinking to the larger problems of educational leadership 
which more and more confront him as the community grows. 

Guaranteed powers. Whether the school system is small, 
as in a city of 5000 inhabitants, employing approximately 
40 teachers; or medium-sized, as in a city of 20,000 inhabi- 
tants, employing from 110 to 125 teachers; or a still larger 
city of 40,000 population, employing from 225 to 250 teachers, 



I Board Business ' - ' 
' Committees P . 




Fio. 13. PLAN OF EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR A MEDIUl 

This Dlan would apply to a city school system employing from about 125 to about 250 
*^ is small, there is little 



People of the State 
)resente(i in the Legislature 



State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction 



People of the City 
School District 



County Superintendent 
of Schools 




Teachei-s in 
Special-type Schools 



CITY SCHOOL SYSTEM, AND SHOWING PROPER RELATIONSHIPS 

e lines to and from the board committees are dotted, for the reason that, if the board 
Y standing committees 



SCHOOL DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION 171 

the rights, duties, and privileges which should be attached 
to the office of city superintendent of schools should be 
approximately the same. These should include the follow- 
ing:— 

1. The guaranteed right to attend any meeting of the board of 
education or any committee thereof, except when his own 
tenure or salary are under consideration, with the right to 
speak on any question, but without a vote. This gives the 
superintendent a legal right to be present whenever school 
matters of any kind are being considered, and the legal right 
to be heard. His good judgment must now guide him as to 
how much and how often to speak, remembering that it is very 
easy to talk too much, and that a superintendent who does so 
will soon make himself obnoxious and defeat his own ends. 

2. The board should be primarily a legislative body, and the 
superintendent its recognized executive officer. The board 
should legislate, and the superintendent should execute. This 
means that the board should act through him, or through 
others, nominally at least, imder his oversight and control, 
and not independent of him. To the end that this be the 
case, such a division of functions should be specified in the 
rules and regulations of the board, or better still in the school 
laws of the State. 

Of course, there will be superintendents who are failures 
as executives, and among such the mortality, under such 
a law, would naturally increase, but superintendents who 
know how to handle executive work will be enabled to carry 
forward their executive functions, without continually 
struggling with boards and board members to obtain or 
retain what should be the superintendent's natural powers 
and duties. 

3. The superintendent, in addition to being the chief executive 
officer of the board, with supervisory oversight of all depart- 
ments, should also be the recognized head of the educational 
department of the school system. As such, he should be 
given full charge of the making and changing of the courses of 
study, of the supervision of the instruction in the schools, the 



172 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

promotion and assignment of pupils, and of the selection of 
books and apparatus for carrying on such instruction, the 
board being asked to approve only when new types of instruc- 
tion are to be added, new expenditures are involved, or new 
contracts need to be signed. In no case should the board take 
any action on such matters except on the prior recommenda- 
tion of the superintendent of schools. 

4. The initiative in all matters relating to the appointment, 
assignment, transfer, promotion, suspension, or dismissal of 
teachers, principals, or special supervisors should rest with the 
superintendent of schools, the board approving or disapprov- 
ing of his recommendations, but without the power of sub- 
stituting other names or initiating new appointments. 

5. In the appointment, assignment, transfer, or dismissal of 
janitors, the superintendent should have a similar authority, 
acting, in the larger school systems, in conjunction with the 
school clerk or business manager, under whose supervision 
the janitors, in certain aspects of their work, may be in partic- 
ular assigned. 

6. In the matter of reports required, records to be kept, and 
blank forms to be used, the power of initiative should in gen- 
eral rest with the superintendent, but with power resting with 
the board to request additional information as to the work of 
the schools. 

7. The superintendent, on his own initiative, should be given 
the right to order expenditures for the schools, up to a certain 
limited amount in any calendar month, the amount varying 
with the size of the system, and without previous specific 
authorization by the board. 

The reasons for these guaranteed powers will be discussed 
in subsequent chapters. 

Educational organization in the large city. As the city 
school system increases in size with the growth of the city, 
coming to employ three or four hundred or more teachers, 
the need for a further expansion and differentiation of the 
educational organization will arise, with the result that a 
larger and a more highly specialized system will be devel- 
oped. As before, the superintendent of schools should re- 
main the nominal head of the entire organization, exercising 



City Boan 



Executive Officer 



CITY SUPEEIXTE 




School 
Janitors 



Fig. 14. PLAN OF EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR A LAR( 

This plan would apply to a city employing 350 to 400 teachers, or upwards The board commit 

under the above organization, 



he Board 



OF SCHOOLS 




School 
Nurses 



SCHOOL SYSTEM, AND SHOWING PROPER RELATIONSHIPS 

been omitted entirely here, for the reason that the school business will be tjransacted better, 
d has no committees at all 



SCHOOL DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION 173 

supervisory oversight of all departments, though with special 
control of the educational department. 

The form of organization for a large city school system is 
shown by Figure 14, inserted here. The need for still larger 
grasp and insight and administrative skiU will be apparent 
if such an organization is to be properly coordinated, and 
effective educational work secured all along the line. Real 
educational statesmanship and leadership of a high order 
are now necessary qualities for the superintendent with 
such an educational organization to direct. 

Central position of the educational department. In all of 
the diagrams showing proper relationships, it will be noticed, 
the educational department has been given the central posi- 
tion, and a straight line leads from the superintendent of 
schools direct to the pupils in the schools. On each side of 
the educational department certain officers or departments 
are shown, and these handle certain parts of the city's edu- 
cational business and are related, more or less directly, to 
the educational department. 

This is as it should be. The educational department came 
first, and all of the other officers and departments have been 
created since for the one purpose of enabling the educational 
department to render a larger community service. The 
building department, the business department, the attend- 
ance department, the health department, the library depart- 
ment, and any other department which may be created exist 
primarily to aid the educational department in fulfilling bet- 
ter the work for which the schools were established; and the 
one important reason why the superintendent of schools, in 
addition to being indicated as the executive head of the 
educational department, is also given general oversight and 
coordinating power over all of the other departments as the 
executive head of the entire school system, is that he may 
preserve this relationship, and prevent any department from 



174 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

aggrandizing itself at the expense of the best interests of th^ 
children in the schools. Buildings, for example, are neces- 
sary, and so are supplies and equipment, but buildings are 
erected to enable teachers to teach children in them, and 
supplies and equipment are furnished to facilitate the work 
of instruction. In planning the buildings and selecting the 
supplies and equipment the needs of the educational de- 
partment must be paramount. Both building and supplies 
departments exist only to serve, though the head of each of 
these occasionally forgets this fact and seems to imagine that 
the educational department has been created to afford work 
for him. 

Executive heads of departments. The city superintend- 
ent of schools, it will also be seen from the different draw- 
ings showing proper relationships, has in each case been 
given general coordinating oversight in all departments, in 
addition to being the head of the educational department. 
He is, as it were, the prime minister, who at the same time 
holds a cabinet portfolio. This primacy is essential for 
effective service and the preservation of proper official rela- 
tionships. In practice, each head of a department in a large 
and well-organized school system will conduct the affairs of 
his department, and without interference on the part of the 
superintendent, but in cases of friction or conflict of au- 
thority the superintendent should be the coordinating head. 
The work of the different departments so overlap that this 
is a virtual necessity, and in cities where such coordination 
does not exist friction and conflict occur from time to time, 
or almost all the time, with the inevitable result that the 
efficiency of the schools is materially impaired. 

In addition to the guaranteed powers of the superintend- 
ents, previously enumerated, each head of a department 
should also be guaranteed certain powers within his own 
department. These we shall indicate when we consider the 




\ THE SCHOOL CLEEKA 



Secretary' 



Purchasing 
Agent 



Superintendent 
of I*roperties 



School 
Janitors 



Store Keeper 
Delivery Man 



Parks and 
Playgrounds 



\ 



Trua 
Offic 



Cashier 



Draftsmen 
Inspectors 
Supei-visors 
Mechanics 



Bo 



Fi6. 15. AN mCORRECT FOR 

This form of organization was found in a city of 250,000 employing approximately 
the preponderating influence of this official in school 



f the 
rict 



State Superintendent 
of Pub. Instruction 














County Superintendent 
of Schools 



JL DIRECTORS 



Library Association 
of City 



Board Committees 



Finance 



Supplies 



Teachers 




the Board 



SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 

Assistant Superintendents 



Special Supervisors 



School Principals 

V 



Regular Teachers 



Pupils 



City Health 
Department 




Medical 
Inspectors 



Nurses 



DUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 

rs and supervisory oflBcers. The heavy lines leading to the School Clerk indicate 
(From the Report of the Portland School Survey) 



SCHOOL DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION 175 

work of each of these departments, which will be the subject 
matter of the subsequent chapters of Part II of this volume. 
Faulty educational organization. In closing this chapter 
on city school department organization we wish to produce, 
for piKposes of discussion, two improper forms of educational 
organization existing in two of our larger American cities. 
Under the form of educational organization shown in Fig. 
15 the school clerk, if at all capable and vigorous, is almost 
certain to become the head of the school system and to dom- 
inate the whole situation. Under the form of organization 
shown in Figure 16 the superintendent and the board are 
likely to be in continual conflict, because, with the popular- 
election basis of tenure, it is good city politics for the super- 
intendent publicly to " put the board in the hole " as often 
as good opportunities offer. Under such a form of educational 
organization the teaching force, due to lack of leadership 
and lack of centralized authority, is likely to be profession- 
ally unprogressive; the board of education, not being able 
to control the superintendent, is almost certain to develop 
into a duplicate and conflicting inexpert board of superin- 
tendents; the school buildings are likely to be constructed 
and repaired in a costly and an unintelligent manner by the 
board of public works; and the funds for the conduct of the 
school department are likely to represent what is left after 
other city patronage departments have had what they want. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Why is good experience as a principal of an elementary school better 
preparation for city superintendence than the principalship of a high 
school? 

2. Why is a school system in which the superintendent of schools is only a 
good average member of the teaching force likely to be an unprogressive 
system? , 

3. Why may such a condition please certain communities better than to 
have a well-informed man in the position? 

List up the different one-sided developments which a superintendent of 
schools in a small city may easily come to represent, and classify them 



176 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

in the order of their danger to the superintendent's future growth and 

larger usefulness. 

5. In cities that you know, how far does the superintendent exercise con- 
trol of functions by law given to the board? 

6. Why may a superintendent, who was a good superintendent when the 
city was small, not be a good man for the place after the city has experi- 
enced a very rapid increase in population? 

7. Suppose that the superintendent of schools has not the professional 
knowledge, the good judgment, or the force of character which would 
enable him to use the "guaranteed powers" wisely; what should a board 
of education do in such a case? 

8. Should the head of a business department determine the kind of school 
supplies to be purchased? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. List up, in two columns, the guaranteed legal powers of a superintendent 
of schools and the legal functions of a board of education, in your State. 

2. Draw up a set of school-board riiles and regulations which will give to 
the superintendent of schools all of the "guaranteed powers" mentioned 
under this paragraph heading. 

3. Make a drawing, similar to those given in this chapter, to show the form 
of educational organization in some city with which you are acquainted. 
If the form of organization is not a satisfactory one, make a second draw- 
ing, showing a desirable form of organization for the city to adopt. 

4. Reconstruct the educational organization shown in Figm*e 15, by mak- 
ing a new and rearranged drawing, so as to give this city a proper educa- 
tional organization. 

6. Similarly, rearrange Figure 16, so as to insure a proper educational organ- 
ization for this city, 

6. Investigate the peculiar form of educational organization now in use at 
Schenectady, New York, and reduce it to a diagram showing relation- 
ships. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Chamberlain, A. F. "The Growth of Responsibility and Enlargement of 
Power of the City Superintendent of Schools." Pubs. Univ. Cal., Edu- 
cation, vol. Ill, no. 4. 

Section VI, pp. 414-25, covers in a general way the form of organization. 
Moore, E. C. How New York City Administers its Schools. World Book Co., 
Yonkers-on-Hudson, N. Y., 1913. 

Chapters VII and VIII deal with board organization, and the necessity for having 
one responsible head. 

Portland, Ore. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. (1913.) 
44 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, 1915. 

Chapter 11 deals with the administrative organization of the school district, and the 
relationships which exist and those which should exist. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ORGANIZATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 

The superintendent as a department head. In addition to 
being the executive head of the whole school system of the 
city, the superintendent should be, in particular, the execu- 
tive head of the educational department of the system. 
Such is his proper place in the educational organization, and 
not as the head of the business and clerical department or of 
the school buildings and repair department. The work of 
these departments he must necessarily be in touch with, but 
if these are the only departments he knows how to manage 
and direct intimately he should be made head of one or the 
other, or in a small city of the two combined, or dropped al- 
together, and a new superintendent of schools for the city 
should be obtained to head the educational department. 
A superintendent of schools should be primarily an educa- 
tional leader, and, while he must of necessity handle many 
matters in many different fields, he should in particular 
stand out as the head of the educational department of the 
school system. 

As the executive head of the whole school system he must 
oversee and coordinate all phases of the work of the school 
department, and must discuss many questions of policy and 
procedure with his department heads, and with the board 
and its committees. Often he must abide by the decisions of 
the board, even though such do not coincide with his views 
as to what should be done. As executive head of the edu- 
cational department of the school system, however, he oc- 
cupies a somewhat different r61e. Here he should be espe- 



178 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

cially expert; here, after all, should be his major interest; and 
here he should be able to work, unimpeded by the board or 
its committees.^ When new undertakings are to be begun, 
new types of schools are to be established, or additional 
funds are needed, the board will, of course, need to be con- 
sulted and to give its sanction, but in the detailed work of 
this department, and especially in all of those matters which 
relate to courses of study and the supervision of instruction, 
the superintendent should be allowed to work without inter- 
ference. In almost all matters his judgment as to what 
should be done, and how it should be done, should prevail. 
When the board loses confidence in his judgment in such 
matters it should secure a new superintendent, rather than 
attempt to do the work itself. 

He gives character to the department. The educational 
department proper, as will be seen from the diagrams in the 
preceding chapter, includes assistant superintendents, spe- 
cial supervisors, principals, regular and special teachers, and 
teachers in special-type schools. This department includes 
by far the largest number of employees in any department, 
— a larger number, in fact, than in all of the other depart- 
ments of the school system combined. It is the central de- 
partment in the school system — the department for the 
advancement of which all of the others exist. 

1 "The superintendent ought to be the educational adviser of the board 
of education, and his counsel ought to command the same respect on their 
part as that of a city solicitor on a question of law, or that of the city phj--- 
sician on a question of sanitation or public health. He ought to be held 
strictly responsible for his advice, just as they are, and for the action of the 
board based upon it. He and not the school board ought to be held responsi- 
ble by the public for the course of study and the methods of teaching in the 
schools. If his advice and judgment are found to be untrustworthy, the 
school board, instead of retaining him and making him simply their clerk 
and agent, and assuming the responsibility themselves which properly be- 
longs to him as an expert, ought to dismiss him and secure a person whose 
judgment they can trust." (T. M. Balliett, in Educational Review, vol. ii, 
p. 484.) 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 179 

It is primarily the task of the superintendent to give tone 
and character to this department. His view must cover the 
school system as a whole, and its many relations to the com- 
plex life of the community which maintains it. He must keep 
thinking of what the schools should be doing for each boy 
and girl in them, and how best this may be done. Out of his 
clearer vision as to purposes, his more mature judgment as 
to ways and means, and his enthusiasm as to what it is pos- 
sible to do, he should give a definite trend to the thinking of 
every one, from assistant superintendent to grade teacher, 
who has to do with the instruction of children in the schools. 
The attitude he takes toward the school problems, his pro- 
fessional interest, his conception as to the nature and pur- 
pose of school supervision, his energy or lack of it, his friend- 
liness and frankness, and his ability to lead professionally 
and to offer helpful and constructive criticism, will all be 
important elements in developing a professional esprit de 
corps in all those below him who work on the problem of 
instruction. It is as a leader of thought and an inspirer of 
high professional ideals that he can render his largest serv- 
ice. By being such he transforms his principals and super- 
visors from routine workers and inspectors into professional 
leaders, and his teachers from slaves of a system and a 
course of study into those whose labors are directed by a 
clear vision and a large purpose. 

Sensitiveness of teachers to leadership. So sensitive is 
a body of teachers to the influence of intelligent and con- 
structive leadership that a superintendent who knows his 
community and thinks in terms of its needs, who knows ed- 
ucational theory and can apply it in practice, who is deeply 
interested in the work of the educational department, who 
can impart vision to and instil an ambition to excel in his 
supervisors and principals, and who can approach teachers 
in a friendly and a helpful spirit, can do almost anything 



180 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

within reason in developing an enthusiasm for service in a 
teaching force in any city of small or moderate size.^ 

On the other hand, the superintendent who is essentially 
an office superintendent, who from his office chair promul- 
gates and enforces a uniformity throughout the school sys- 
tem, who inspects rather than supervises, and who controls 
by rules and regulations rather than by developing initiative 
and strength on the part of those under him, will in time de- 
velop a school system so uniform that progress will become 
difficult, a supervisory force which lacks initiative and keeps 
close to old and well-established paths, and a teaching force 
wanting in personal strength and professional enthusiasm. 
One type of superintendent produces a live school system; 
the other a dead one. Regulations " from the office " and the 
enforcement of the letter of the law kill; it is the spirit and 
the personal touch which give life. 

Characteristics of a good supervisory organization. A 
good supervisory organization is almost always a product of 
intelligent and helpful leadership at the top. Under such, a 
positive premium is placed on the development of those per- 
sonal and professional qualities, on the part of all subordi- 
nates down the line, which serve to give individual strength 
and character to and to develop self-reliance in a teaching 
force. A judicious use of personal liberty in action is en- 
couraged, and individual thinking and personal gro^i:h are 
stimulated by the placing of responsibility and by the en- 
couragement of individual initiative. A premium is placed 
on personal efficiency, and on being and keeping better than 
the average of the mass. The adaptation of school work to 
needs and to capacity, intelligent departure from the ordi- 
nary procedure, and the substitution of thought and in- 

'■ The larger a city becomes the harder, of course, it is for a superintend- 
ent to do this, and the more he must depend upon subordinates. In a large 
city a superintendent tends to be removed from personal touch with his 
teachers and personal contact with their problems. 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 181 

telligence for mechanical routine are not only permitted, but 
distinctly approved and rewarded. On the other hand, the 
man or woman who merely drifts along, doing little think- 
ing, handling details in a typical routine manner, taking few 
chances, doing only what is required, and fearful of the envy 
of associates or the criticism of superiors, is made to feel 
supervisory disapproval and a pressure to improve and to 
keep professionally alive. 

Responsibility of all for successful work. Every higher 
supervisory officer, too, should be made to feel that he (or 
she) is a part of a live directive organization, with a mission 
for helpful and constructive service, and in large part re- 
sponsible for the proper carrying-out of the common edu- 
cational policy of the superintendent and themselves. Every 
principal, too, should be made to understand clearly that he 
must keep alive professionally and awake and busy, and that 
he is not only directly responsible for the success of the ad- 
ministrative policy in his particular school, but that he is 
also in part responsible for the general success of such policy 
throughout the whole educational organization as well. Any 
attempt at the monopolization of success, any unwillingness 
to share ideas with others, or any evidence of selfishness in 
permitting other schools to take advantage of his best con- 
tributions, should be frowned upon, and the man should be 
made to feel the importance of the common cause by impart- 
ing to him a larger ideal of professional service. In the work- 
ing-out of special room-problems, every teacher, also, should 
be made to feel that her individuality is appealed to. Should 
her plans not be approved by the principal, who ought to 
be prominent in such stimulation of individual initiative, it 
should be done in such a manner as will encourage rather 
than discourage further efforts in this direction. 

A weak supervisory organization. On the other hand, that 
is a weak supervisory organization where all is mechanically 



182 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

laid out; where the supervisor's chief duty is not to supervise 
but to see that the work is being carried out as directed; 
where principals are clerks and statisticians, rather than 
professional leaders; and where teachers are so discouraged 
from any attempts at individuality by those above them in 
authority that they come to feel that to lift a head above the 
average of the mass is only to display a target for those 
above to hit. No surer recipe could be given for killing pro- 
fessional interest and enthusiasm, for changing live teachers 
into dead ones, or for driving teachers together into unions 
to pry up wages, shorten the hours of labor, and protect one 
another from the criticism of supervisory officers and of the 
board of education. 

Too much activity on the part of the school board or its 
committees in matters which it should not attempt to 
handle; too little responsibility for results placed with the 
superintendent, and placed by him in turn with his subor- 
dinates; an office-chair superintendent, or a superintendent 
whose chief interest is in some other branch of the service 
than the educational; a weak but well-meaning superintend- 
ent, who lacks technical preparation and any guiding edu- 
cational philosophy for the conduct of the schools; a strong 
and vigorous superintendent, but who lacks the same pro- 
fessional preparation and philosophy, and who rules with so 
strong a hand that no one under him is allowed much liberty 
in thought or action; a superintendent whose conception of 
educational administration is that of clockwork, machinery, 
inspections, and uniform output, and who runs the educa- 
tional department much as he would run a factory; — any 
one of these conditions will not only fail to develop strength 
and individuality on the part of those who do the real work 
of the schools, but will crush out what of these quaUties the 
workers may possess. 

Just as a strong and capable parent, by deciding every- 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 18S 

thing for a child, and directing all of his important actions, 
may crush his individuality and initiative and leave him 
weak-willed, so over-direction by supervisory officers may 
produce the same result in a teaching force. The teachers 
become dependent upon authority, want everything which 
they are to do definitely laid out, and in time become me- 
chanical workers devoid of all professional interest and en- 
thusiasm. On the other hand, just as a good teacher tries, 
as rapidly as possible, to make himself unnecessary to the 
pupil by training him to think and act for himself, and by 
showing him where and how to get information and how to 
secure results, so a good supervisory organization tries to 
make itself unnecessary, in many matters, by training 
teachers to act independently and to think for themselves. 

Personnel of the supervisory organization. In a small city, 
such, for example, as is provided for in the educational 
organization shown in Figure 12, the organization will of 
necessity be quite simple, and the large proportion of the 
superintendent's time and thinking must of necessity be 
given to the work of the educational department. He and 
his principals must represent the supervisory organization, 
and together must carry out the community educational 
policy. At most, such a superintendent can hope to have 
only a few special supervisors, and these perhaps for only 
part time. The salaries, probably, will be quite moderate, 
and the character of the principals and supervisors only 
mediocre, so far as training, experience, and educational in- 
sight are concerned. Such a situation demands that the 
superintendent furnish most of the vision and inspiration 
necessary to lead to effective work. In a sense he must con- 
duct a normal school, with his supervisors, principals, and 
teachers as the students, showing them what is t(x be done, 
why it should be done, and how best to do it. 

In a medium-sized city, such as is provided for in the 



184 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

educational organization shown in Figure 13, a larger and 
presumably a better supervisory corps mil be available. A 
woman assistant superintendent for primary work, another 
assistant w^ho can help in directing the administration of the 
courses of instruction and in testing results, a half-dozen 
special supervisors, and a number of presumably better- 
trained school principals, will now constitute the supervisory 
corps. 

In a still larger city, such as is provided for in the edu- 
cational organization shown in Figure 14, that is a city of 
80,000 or 90,000 inhabitants or upwards, the staff would 
consist of one or more assistant superintendents, a number 
of supervisors of special subjects, and a still larger corps of 
presumably still better-trained and more-experienced school 
principals, now supervising a number of different types of 
schools. To coordinate, direct, and keep this staff up to his 
own high conceptions for the educational service, and through 
them to reach down to the children for whom the schools 
after all exist, is the peculiar task and the large opportunity 
of the superintendent of schools as the executive head of the 
educational department. 

Let us now examine the peculiar characteristics of each 
main group of such a supervisory organization. 

Assistant superintendent and supervisor. The assist- 
ant superintendent, except in a somewhat rudimentary 
form, will not exist except in the larger cities, — cities from 
40,000 to 50,000 and more. Special supervisors exist in most 
of the smaller cities and often, in their duties, shade into 
assistant superintendents. This is especially true of the 
supervisors of primary and upper-grade work. 

These officers constitute the superintendent's cabinet for 
the administration of the department of education, and the 
character of this cabinet is of fundamental importance to 
him. Upon their educational insight, largeness of vision. 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 185 

ability in administration, discretion, tact, personal loyalty, 
and frankness in cabinet discussions must depend, to a large 
degree, his success or failure in the administration of the 
schools. They are not merely deputy administrators, but 
in a special sense they are his counselors and advisers, and 
the representatives of the superintendent and his educational 
policy before the teachers and the public. They act through 
his authority and in his name, and they must be able and 
willing to assume their proper share of the responsibility for 
the successful administration of the schools. 

Cabinet solidarity. This educational cabinet, too, must 
be a constructive cabinet, one which will discuss plans freely 
and frankly with the superintendent, be discreet enough not 
to talk outside about matters still under consideration, and 
able to carry into realization plans once decided upon. This 
calls for a body of men and women who can develop cabinet 
solidarity, who have sufficient insight and training to sense 
the purpose of what is proposed, sufficient enthusiasm for 
an ideal to enable them to enter fully into the plans and 
policy and ideals of a superintendent, and that personal 
force which will enable them to carry to the teachers in the 
service that fire and enthusiasm which carries plans into 
realities and unites a teaching force behind the purposes of 
the system. 

Such a cabinet is of large service in guiding the system, 
sensing the feeling of the teaching staff or of the community, 
removing misunderstandings, and averting storms. Any 
system of educational administration that is worth much 
will tend to outrun the understanding of the community, and 
oft times also that of the teaching force. Misunderstandings, 
personal enmity, and political attack must be expected to 
appear from time to time. Most often such troubles are due 
to a simple lack of understanding of what is proposed, but 
sometimes they arise from the unwillingness of certain 



186 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

teachers to work, the desire of some politically inclined prin- 
cipal " to put the superintendent in wrong " with the com- 
munity, or the pure charlatanism of some editor or politician 
in the community. Progress calls for continuous education, 
and, while the attacks may be exasperating, explanation of 
purposes to teachers, and the continuous education of the 
public to understand what the schools are trying to do, are 
among the surest means for warding off or minimizing the 
effect of such attacks. In sensing and reporting the feeling 
of the teaching staff, and in explaining plans both before 
teachers and the community, the members of the superin- 
tendent's cabinet have an important part to play. The man 
or woman who lies down in the harness and refuses to pull 
at such moments is not worthy of a place in a supervisory 
corps. 

The personal equation. The importance of proper selec- 
tions for such positions can hardly be overestimated, and is 
seldom appreciated by boards of education. The individual 
equation is a very important element here. Men or women 
who will not or cannot cooperate, who lack personality and 
enthusiasm, who cannot bear responsibility easily and well, 
or who do not have broad views as to educational purposes 
or processes, should neither be selected nor retained in such 
positions. The real basis of the efficiency of the supervisor 
lies, after all, in the largeness of his conception of the func- 
tion of public education in a democratic society; in the ideals 
he has for his part in the work; in his judgment of values in 
dealing with teachers; in his knowledge of the community 
need for what he is supervising; in his good conmaon sense 
and practical ability, as shown in his dealings with situa- 
tions and people; in his courtesy, fairness, and gentlemanly 
ways; and in his ability to impart to others his own high 
ideals as to work and his own enthusiasm for helpful service. 

A superintendent, though, if he is the type of a superin- 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 187 

tendent he should be, can hardly expect his associates to see 
things at first from quite as large or as mature a point of view 
as he does. It must then be one of his important functions to 
think out and to unfold his ideas and plans to them; to stim- 
ulate their thinking on and frank criticism of them; and to 
awaken in them something of his larger conception as to 
educational service. A superintendent who can measure up 
to such a standard, and who can extend such helpful lead- 
ership to those associated with him, can in time develop a 
strong and forceful administrative corps and a good sup- 
porting body of teachers, because under such leadership all 
those who are useful members of the organization come to 
feel that they are working toward reasonable and attainable 
goals. 

Relations of superintendent and assistant. An assistant 
superintendent bears a peculiarly confidential relation to a 
superintendent of schools. A primary supervisor in a small 
school system occupies much the same position to the super- 
intendent. Each must be the superintendent's " right-hand 
man." 

As such an assistant's time is given more to schoolroom 
visitation than the superintendent's can be, he comes to be 
in closer touch with the teachers, and to have a bird's-eye 
view of the whole situation. His opinion on many matters 
can be of much value to his superior. Seeing teachers in all 
parts of the school system, he forms a much truer estimate of 
their worth and effectiveness than do school principals, and 
an important part of his work should be the discovery of 
talent and capacity and the advising of the superintend- 
ent as to the placing of such qualities so as to result in the 
greatest advantage to the school system.^ 

^ "His time is spent in the schoolrooms, — observing, listening, judg- 
ing, encouraging, praising, suggesting, correcting. Using data thus gained, 
he should be ready to consult with the superintendent at any time, and to 



188 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

He should be able to sense the superintendent's policy and 
to adapt and elaborate it as special needs may require, and 
without continually bothering the superintendent for in- 
structions as to details. In particular he should strive to 
economize the superintendent's time by being willing to take 
a temporary assignment of a part of his responsibility and 
authority; by directing him as to where he can most quickly 
see the best in instruction or the particular needs of the 
schools; by giving him notes as to conditions, progress, or 
needs for use in teachers' or principals' meetings; and by not 
taking too much of his time himself. To be ready for a con- 
ference when a conference is desired, to be able to talk to the 
point and not too long, and to know when to leave, are valu- 
able characteristics in one who has to deal with a busy man. 
He must also be able and willing to draw conclusions, to 
state his evidence, to shoulder responsibility, and, if occasion 
demands, to stand behind his guns.^ Such a relationship 
calls for a degree of intelligence, courage, loyalty, and savoir- 
faire which is not especially abundant in this world. 

The special supervisors. In by far the large majority of 
our cities, as has been pointed out, the cabinet organization 
will be very small and very simple. A few special supervisors 
for special branches of instruction, with perhaps a primary 

report skillful teachers who deserve recognition and promotion; misplaced 
teachers who should be transferred to other grades or other sections of the 
city; incompetent teachers, with a statement of their specific defects; crying 
evils which should be rectified as soon as discovered; questionable practices 
which need to be considered and modified; special courses which merit ex- 
tension; sources of strength and weakness in the schools as a whole." (Alice 
E. Reynolds, in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1904, 
p. 265.) 

1 "The aU important attribute of an assistant in his relation to tb 
superintendent is an absolutely candid frankness. The man who deUven 
an ambiguous opinion, who hesitates to express a conviction, or who dis- 
likes to be quoted when an issue is at stake, mil prove a poor sailing mate 
in rough weather." (Alice E. Reynolds, in Proceedings of National Edu' 
cation Association, 1904, p. 266.) 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 189 

supervisor added in the medium-sized cities, will constitute 
the usual supervisory staff. In all of the smaller cities, how- 
ever, the school principals can and should be included as a 
part of the cabinet group for the consideration of plans and 
procedure. 

It will be well, in any case, for the special supervisors, 
— penmanship, drawing, music, cooking, sewing, man- 
ual-training, school-gardening, playgrounds, — if they are 
thrown into somewhat close contact with the principals and 
the primary supervisor. One of the important matters which 
superintendents of schools should look after, in the admin- 
istration of the educational department, is that of prevent- 
ing a narrow specialization in the work of his special super- 
visors. In a twentieth-century American school system it 
is important that a supervisor's view as to his own respon- 
sibility be broad. The mere specialist, who thinks of little 
else than proficiency in his own special subject of instruc- 
tion, is of relatively little worth. His enthusiasm for his own 
subject is of course valuable, but if it serves to obscure his 
vision of the larger interests of the school system as a whole 
it is not a healthful enthusiasm. A superintendent should 
see that his specialists, while encouraged to do good work 
in their respective lines, nevertheless keep their subjects sub- 
servient to the larger purposes which the schools as a whole 
are attempting to carry forward. This breadth of view, in 
the smaller city organizations, he must usually develop in 
them. The instruction in each special subject should con- 
tribute something toward enabling boys and girls to fill 
efficiently the spheres of life possible for them, as well as 
impart mere technical and measurable ability in subject 
matter.^ 

^ "It is the business of a general superintendent of schools jealously to 
defend a general liberal education for children against the inevitable at- 
tacks of special supervisors, who so naturally try to monopolize most of 



190 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

The school principals. Whatever other supervisory offi- 
cers may or may not exist for the purpose of coordinating 
and improving the administration of a school system, the 
unit of supervision is naturally the individual school,^ and 
the priucipals of the schools become the instruments through 
which such supervisory control is exercised. 

We are not likely to overestimate the importance of the 
office of school principal. As the superintendent of schools 
gives tone and character to the whole school system, so the 
school principal gives tone and character to the school under 
his control. "As is the principal, so is the school," is per- 
haps a truer statement than the similar one referring to the 
teacher. In the administration of a school system the office 
of school principal should be magnified. ^ Whatever can be 
done to add strength and dignity and responsibility to the 

the general teachers' time and energy in teaching and worrying about their 
special subjects. If he expects special supervisors to be strong in their 
special fields, he must be equally so in the general field." (M. C. Potter, in 
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, p. 297.) 

^ In a few cities, notably Indianapolis and Baltimore, a group system for 
principalships is in use. Under this plan, one central school containing the 
upper grades, and sometimes the lower as well, has three or four surround- 
ing primary schools, containing only the lower grades, attached to the 
central school for purposes of supervision. The four or five schools thus 
form a group, often designated by a letter, and the sixty to seventy-five 
teachers are under a supervisory principal, who in consequence partakes 
a little of the nature of an assistant superintendent. A good description of 
such a plan may be found in the Repart of the Commission appointed to study 
the public schools of Baltimore, pp. 49-53. 

2 "I would make the position of school principal one place of fixed and 
definite responsibility, and I would magnify and dignify that position and 
office. I would have him feel the responsibility of the place he occupies. 
I would do my work with his school through him. I would have every- 
thing pertaining to his school pass through his hands, both to and from. 
Questions and complaints, whether of parents, teachers, or pupils, should 
be answered, adjusted, and settled either by him or in his presence. I 
would have all parties, however, and particularly the principal, understand 
that an appeal from all decisions was always in order, provided the prin- 
cipal be first served with notice of such appeal." (A. R Blodgett, in Pro- 
ceedings of National Education Association, 1903, p. 226.) 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 191 

oflSce should be done, with the view to making each principal 
feel that his work is large and important, and that he must 
keep constantly growing if he is to continue to measure up 
to the demands of the position.^ 

The knowledge, insight, skill, and qualities for helpful 
leadership of the principal of the school practically de- 
termine the ideals and standards of achievements of both 
teachers and pupils within the school. The best of super- 
visory organization cannot make a strong school where the 
principal is weak and inefficient, while a strong and capable 
principal can develop a strong school even in cities where 
the general supervisory organization is notoriously weak 
and ineffective and the professional interest of the teachers 
notoriously low. The mere fact that helpful supervision is 
so predominantly personal in its nature and methods gives 
to the office of school principal a large potential impor- 
tance. ^ 

The term "potential importance" is used advisedly, be- 
cause, taken generally over the United States, perhaps the 
weakest place in our city organization and administration 
to-day is found in the principalship of our elementary 
schools. Few who hold such positions have had any training 
for the work, and many have come to their position without 
any special fitness for the service. Many principals give 
their time almost entirely to administrative duties and do 
little supervisory work, though the latter ought to be their 
most important function. Of those who do supervisory 
work, many fail to make their supervision helpfully con- 
structive to the teachers supervised. 

Often the principals are not wholly, or even largely to 

^ In the figures given in the preceding chapter (Figs. 11-13) note how 
the lines of authority converge to and radiate from the principal. 

2 The second book of this series on school administration is devoted en- 
tirely to the work of a principal in the administration of a school, and sets 
forth much more in detail the importance of this office. 



1 



192 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMIMSTRATION 

blame for such a condition. Too often the principal is given 
almost no authority to vary anything, or to depart in any 
way from the rigid uniformity prescribed for all from above. 
Under such conditions the supervision easily degenerates 
into inspection, and the principal stands in the school, not 
as the helpful leader and inspirer of his teachers, but as the 
representative of a system imposed upon all by those in 
authority above. He keeps the records, times the teachers, 
manages the fire drills, carries the keys to the supply-room, 
and hands out the chalk to the teachers. Even good prin- 
cipals gradually lose their energy and their capacity for 
usefulness under such an administrative organization.^ 

Increasing their effectiveness. It should be one of the 
piu'poses of a good supervisory organization to break up 
such a condition. The superintendent in almost any Ameri- 
can school system probably will need to spend much time 
and effort on the professional education of his principals. It 
is important that he do this. He must build up in them 
good educational conceptions, give them something of his 
own vision and insight, develop in them ideals and stand- 
ards for work, and awaken a desire on their part to excel. 
This will involve the breaking up of rigidity and uniformity 
in the school system, the placing of responsibility with them 
for results rather than the following of a uniform plan, the 
development among the principals of a guiding philosophy 
and a theory of supervision, and the weeding out of those 
who will not devote themselves to a serious study of the 
problems which concern their work and their school. 

At the principals' meetings, which should be relatively 
frequent, the general policy should be outlined in a series of 
straightforward and candid talks. The best results in the 
schools of his own or of other school systems should be pre- 

^ See the Portland School Survey, chap, iii, and chap, viii, subdiv. 6, for a 
good illustration of the deadening effects of such a system. 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 193 

sented. The difference between oflSce-chair administration 
and clerical perfection on the one hand, and helpful and 
constructive supervision on the other, should be clearly set 
forth. The means by which administrative efficiency is at- 
tained should be presented, and common defects in schooF 
administration and supervision pointed out.^ The more ex- 
perienced and sagacious of the principals should be asked to 
explain their methods and plans of work, that the young, 
cranky, and unwise ones may be benefited by such a pre- 
sentation. Ideals and standards for work should be formu- 
lated, and ways and means of extending helpful supervision 
to teachers set forth. 

Underlying purposes of the supervisory organization. 
While the superintendent and his assistants must of neces- 
sity guide and direct and prevent waste in instruction, the 
difference between helpful supervision and mere inspection 
should ever be kept prominently in mind. Supervision 
should mean help, encouragement, and support rather than 
inspection and criticism. Money spent on supervisors whose 
chief work lies in enforcing the obedience of all to uniform 
rules and regulations, checking-up and percenting the school 
work done to see if it tallies with the course of study laid 
down, manipulating the details and the red tape of the ad- 
ministrative machinery, and tracking down violators of the 
prescribed rules, is money wasted, and its effect on a teach- 
ing force is positively bad. 

Instead, the underlying purpose of supervision is to break 
up any such tendencies, to extend liberty of action so far as 
liberty can be shown to be used intelligently, to place a 
premium on initiative and individuality, and to infuse a 
teaching force with such concepts of the purpose and means 
and ends of education as will lift their work above sordid 

1 The Salt Lake City School Survey Report, chap, ni, describes a good 
example of such service with a body of school principals. 



194 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

details and make it seem to them truly great and worth 
while. With such a guiding conception means become less 
important than ends, and the careful following of regula- 
tions of less moment than the exercise of an intelligent 
individuality. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Should a board of education, on its own initiative, ever — 

(a) Order a study taught in a certain grade? 

(b) Order a study taken out of a certain grade? 

(c) Order the character of the instruction changed? 
{(T) Order a certain form of patriotism taught? 

(e) Forbid the observance of an event or a birthday in the schools? 

2. Should a committee of the board, or individual members of it, ever — 

(a) In visiting a school, openly criticise the work of a teacher? 
(6) Find fault with a principal as to his conduct of the school? 
(c) Give directions that anything should or should not be done? 

3. Should a board, by rules and regulations, ever require — 

(a) All cases of disciphne to be reported to it? 

(b) That its permission be asked to enable teachers or schools to hold 
exhibits of their work or meetings "with parents? 

(c) That principals of schools be required to secure its permission 
before inviting any person to speak to the pupils of the school? 

4. Should a superintendent of schools feel it necessary to ask the approval 
of the board, or a committee of it — 

(a) To permit a teacher to vary from the adopted course of study? 
(6) To authorize an educational experiment in connection with the 
instruction of some class, or school? 

(c) To give permission to the teachers to entertain the parents of 
the children at the school? 

(d) To close a school thirty minutes early to hold a teachers' meeting? 

5. Should a board ever require that teachers and principals should not 
enroll in studj' courses during the months the schools are in session? 

6. Point out some of the means of professional leadership which may be 
used by a superintendent of schools. 

7. Suppose a board finds that the superintendent of schools does not really 
know what to do in educational matters, cannot lead, and has no cour- 
age or executive force, and still has two years of his term to serve. What 
should the board do in such a case? 

8. Why is a good woman supervisor of primary work one of the most de- 
sirable assistants a superintendent can add to his force? 

9- If you were a superintendent of a small city and could have $3000 a 
year for special supervisors, how would you spend it to get the maxi- 
mum educational returns for the money invested? 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 195 

10. Three small cities, located near one another along a trolley line, can 
afford only about $2000 a year each for special supervision. What is the 
best plan you can suggest to enable each to get the maximum benefits 
from such an expenditure? 

11. Suppose you were called to the superintendency in a city which for a 
long time had had a weak supervisory organization, and teachers, prin- 
cipals, supervisors, board of education, and the community were not 
acquainted with any better way : how would you go at it to institute a 
strong supervisory organization? 

12. Distinguish between an administrative organization and a supervisory 
organization; between administration and supervision. 

13. Why is a system of fines, as described in the Report of the Portland 
School Survey, not conducive to the development of a strong supervis- 
ory organization? 

14. Illustrate types of service of the members of the supervisory staff in 
educating the teachers and the public, so as to ward off criticism and 
prepare the way for further progress. 

15. What would you do, in an administrative way, to increase the impor- 
tance of the office of school principal? 

16. W^hat would you do if you wanted to train your principals to render 
helpful supervisory service? Outline your plan. 

17. What would you do when you find that half of your principals 
cannot shoulder responsibility, or render any supervisory service of 
value? 

18. Many writers object to the term assistant superintendent, and propose 
inspector instead. Does this term express the purpose of such a super- 
visory officer? What would be a still better term to use? 

19. Fourteen recommendations for reform are given at the close of chapter 
III of the Report of the Portland School Survey. After reading this chap- 
ter, discuss the desirability and feasibility of each of the first thirteen 
recommendations . 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. What are the chief duties and functions and services of assistant super- 
intendents, in cities of moderate size which have such officials. 

2. What are the chief duties and functions of a supervisor of primary work 
in cities employing such a person? 

3. How does the group system of schools, with a supervisory principal for 
each group, as in Baltimore or Indianapolis, seem to compare in edu- 
cational efficiency with the principal-for-each-school plan? Which plan 
is the more expensive for a city to follow? 

4. Make out a list of a half dozen topics of a kind such as a superintendent 
might need or desire to discuss "vs-ith his "cabinet," in a city large enough 
to have such, aside from the principals. 

5. Do the same for the principals' meetings in such a city. 



196 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

6. Do the same, for a small city, where one special supervisor and a few 
principals constitute the entire supervisory staff. 

7. Do the same for meetings of the special supervisors, in which the super- 
intendent's underlying purpose will be to broaden their conceptions of 
the educational purpose. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Allen, J. G. "The Supervisory Work of Principals "; in School Review, vol. 
I, pp. 291-96. (May, 1893.) 

A very good article on the work and personality of a school principal. 

Chancellor, W. E. Our Schools; Their Administration and Supervision. 
434- pp. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1904. 

Chapter IV, pp. 104-32, is a very good and readable chapter on the organization 
and work of the supervisory officers. 

Chicago, III. Report of the Chicago Educational Commission. (1899.) 248 
pp. Univ. Chic. Press. 

Article III, pp. 32-57, on the system of supervision, deals with the work of super- 
intendent, assistants, and principals, and the powers they should be given to insure 
effective work. 

Clark, M. G. (Same topic as Hunter.) Proceedings of National Education 
Association, 1913, pp. 303-07. 

Verj' good on the characteristics of superintendent and supervisors. 

Davidson, P. E. "The Professional Training of School Officers"; in Edu- 
cational Review, vol. 46, pp. 473-91. (December, 1913.) 

Describes the proper professional equipment of a school principal, and analyzes 
his work and duties. A good article. 

Elliott, E. C. City School Supervision. 250 pp. 1914. World Book Co., 
Yonkers. (Part of the New York City School Survey Report.) 

Chapters IV and V deal with the school as the unit of supervision, and the work 
of the district superintendents. A somewhat detailed analysis of administrative and 
supervisory conditions in New York City. 

Farrington, F. E. "The Equipment of the School Supervisor"; in Edu- 
cational Review, vol. 35, pp. 41-51. (January, 1908.) 

A very good article on the training and qualifications needed for a principal or a 
supervisor. 

Hunter, Fr. M. "How can Supervisors and Assistant Superintendents 
render the Most Efficient Service in their Relations to Principals and 
Teachers?" in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, 
pp. 300-03. 

Very good on the place of the superintendent in such service. 

Kendall, C. N. "The Management of Special Departments"; in Procedings 
of National Education Association, 1904, pp. 271-76. 

Good on the mutual relations of superintendent and special supervisors, and the 
organization of special supervision. 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 197 

Kennedy, J. "The Function of Supervision"; in Educational Review, vol. 
I, pp. 465-69. (May, 1891.) 

A very good article on the characteristics of good school supervision. 
McMurry, F. M. Elementary School Standards. 218 pp. World Book Co., 
Yonkers, 1913. (Part of the New York City School Survey Report.) 

Part III, chapters 12-16, sets up standards for supervision and draws conclusions 
as to the character of supervision existing. 

Nelson, B. E. "How can the Ward School Principal be of Most Service?" 
in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1909, pp. 324-26. 
Good on the administrative and supervisory work of a principal. 
Portland, Ore. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. (1913.) 
441 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, 1915. 

Chapter III, on the system of supervision, describes a weak supervisory organiza- 
tion. The necessary changes are listed at the end in a series of recommendations. 

Potter, M. C. "The Relation of Supervisory Assistant to the Superintend- 
ent"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, pp. 296- 
99. 

A good paper, followed by a good short talk on the same topic by J. J. Keyes. 

Potter, M. C. "Qualifications and Functions of the Ward-School Prin- 
cipal"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1909, pp. 
322-24. 

A very good article on his personal qualities and work. 

Reynolds, Alice E. "The Assistant to the Superintendent, — his Functions 
and Methods of Work"; in Proceedings of National Education Associa- 
tion, 1904, pp. 264-71. 
A very good article. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of a Survey of the School System. (1915.) 
324 pp. 

Chapter III, on the administratioa of the educational department, describes a 
good supervisory system. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE TEACHING CORPS 

I. Selection and Tenure 
In addition to superintendents, special supervisors, and 
principals, the educational department also includes that 
large body of persons who give instruction in the different 
schools and are known collectively as the teaching corps. 
The selection, assignment, designation for retention, and 
further training of these constitutes, where he is permitted 
to exercise such functions, an important part of the work of 
a superintendent of schools. 

1. The selection of teachers 

The selection of teachers. Every school system needs a 
few additional teachers each year to replace those who re- 
sign, are removed, or die; to meet the natural growth of the 
city; and to provide for new types of instruction added. 
Even in cities where population is practically stationary a 
few new teachers will be needed each year, while in a rap- 
idly growing city the annual selections may run into scores 
or even hundreds.^ To see that only the best available ma- 
terial is selected for the vacant and new positions is an 
important duty, often neglected, resting upon the city schoo^< 
authorities. 

In some cities the new teachers are selected largely by 

1 In the Portland Survey Report (chap, iv), statistics were given sho\\dng 
the number of teachers needed for the preceding thirteen years, and the 
statement was made that at that time (1913) about one hundred new 
teachers were required to meet the needs of this city of approximately 
250.000 inhabitants. 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 199 

the superintendent of schools, his selections being approved 
by the board of education; in other cities the city board of 
education makes all the selections, sometimes without even 
consulting the superintendent about the matter; but in 
most of our cities the selections are, in large part, the work 
of the superintendent and board acting together, each trying 
to do what is best for the schools. 

The early method. In the earlier days of our educational 
work, when there were but few trained teachers anywhere, 
when school supervision was in its beginnings, and when the 
demands made upon the schools were comparatively simple, 
the selection of teachers by boards of education answered 
the needs of the situation fairly well. The passing of a simple 
written examination, given by an examining committee or 
by the county superintendent, and the issuance of a teach- 
er's certificate, answered all demands on the scholastic and 
professional side. 

On the personal side, which was the important one, the 
members of the teachers' committee of the school board, as 
well as the other board members, were visited by the differ- 
ent applicants and importuned by their friends; the per- 
sonality and special needs of the applicant were given due 
consideration; and, consciously or unconsciously, the per- 
sonal friendships, church relationships, and party affiliation 
of male relatives all played their part in determining who 
were to be selected by the board. The teachers' committee 
finally made its selections, formally reported the list to the 
full board for approval, and the board either adopted, or 
modified and then adopted, their report. The schools being 
regarded in large part as a local undertaking, and the theory 
that any one could teach who could govern being the chief 
pedagogical belief of the time, it followed that outsiders 
were seldom selected, and that the bright and attractive 
graduate of the last class in the local school system, the 



200 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

daughter of the estimable citizen, the young lady who 
needed to help her widowed mother, or the widow or the 
deserted wife of a former local resident, were the natural 
persons selected to share the public bounty and to teach the 
children of the community in the schools. Where the schools 
had been taken possession of by the local politicians, some 
local boss, instead, had to be seen, and he dictated all the 
appointments made by the board. 

Defects of this method. This earher method has per- 
sisted, in whole or in part, in many of our American cities, 
but it is now being rapidly replaced by one more likely to 
result in the selection of a better type of teachers for the 
schools. There are two main defects in this earlier method. 

In the first place, boards of laymen are not specially com- 
petent persons to make such selections. However honest 
they may be, they are more or less unconsciously influenced 
by local considerations which have nothing to do with the 
fitness of the candidate for the position of teacher. Personal 
appearance of the candidate and sympathy for her counts 
with them far too much; professional merit and adaptability 
to the work of instruction, for which they have no standards 
for judging, coimt for far too little. Professional preparation 
and success are not appraised at theil" full worth, and hence 
their possession is not especially encouraged in applicants. 

The result is that not only are improper persons often 
selected for teaching positions, but the educational and pro- 
fessional standards of those individuals in the community 
who decide to take up teaching are seriously influenced by 
such bases for selection. This lowers the professional tone 
and tends to keep down the professional compensation of 
those already in the school system. The professional ideals 
and the conception of professional competency on the part 
of the teaching force are not stimulated, and the task of the 
superintendent in improving the instruction in the schools 



SELECTION AND TENUKE OF TEACHERS 201 

is, as a result, made much more difficult than is necessary. 
Ultimately the children in the schools and the community 
as a whole pay the price of the school board's attempt to 
exercise such a professional function as the selection of the 
teachers for the schools. 

In the second place, the range of selection is usually much 
too narrow. Boards of education almost always wait for 
applicants, and then select from those who apply. The local 
candidate has the inside track under such a plan, can bring 
plenty of local pressure to bear, and usually secures the 
position. This tends to keep the home schools for the home 
girls, when as a matter of fact the home girls are not the 
equal of girls equally well prepared from the outside, unless 
they have gone away from home for their training. It is an 
important part of the training and life experience of a young 
person to go away from home, to get new ideas from others 
and to be influenced in new ways, and to come in contact 
with new people and gain new points of view. In no line of 
professional work is this more important than in teaching. 

Importance of guarding appointments. Few more impor- 
tant duties rest upon a superintendent and a board than 
that of guarding carefully the entrance to the position of 
teacher in the public schools. It is much better to keep out 
unprepared and improper persons in the beginning than to 
try to dismiss them later on, while the damage they do in 
the schools is prevented. Even at the best the superintend- 
ent and his supervisory officers will have enough to do to 
train the newcomers and those already in the system to new 
work, and to educate them to larger ideals, without having 
the task made unnecessarily difficult by the addition to the 
system of those who have no real place there. 

Just how far a superintendent can go in guarding this 
entrance to the work will vary much in different communi- 
ties. In some the salaries paid will be so low that trained 



202 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

teachers from the outside caimot often be attracted to the 
service, and the home girls accordingly come to expect the 
vacant positions as soon as they have finished the high- 
school course. In other communities the salaries may be 
high enough, but the community ideals for public education 
are low, and the board of education has never attempted to 
change conditions by setting standards which ought to have 
been enforced. In still other communities good salaries and 
good educational and professional standards, strictly en- 
forced, make the work of selecting new teachers an easy 
matter. 

Fundamental principles of action. One of the first steps 
in improving conditions surrounding the selection and re- 
tention of teachers is to get rather clearly in the minds of 
the board and the community generally certain fundamental 
principles of action which relate to the work of the schools. 
These may be stated briefly, as follows : — 

1. Schools have been ordered established by the State for the 
education of the children of the State, and each child in the 
community is entitled to as good an education and as good 
teachers as the community can afford. 

2. Only the best education within the means of the community 
should be provided, and this can be the case only when the 
teachers and supervisors employed are the best it is possible 
to obtain with tlie money at hand. 

3. The schools exist, in no sense, to afford places for teachers. 
No one is entitled by right to a teacher's position, except on 
the one basis of being the best-prepared and the most profes 
sionally in earnest teacher available. In no way should tht 
schools be made local family affairs, or used for local chari- 
table, political, social, or religious purposes. 

4. The question of where a teacher comes from is absolutely 
irrelevant. " Home girls" have no prior claim to the teaching 
positions, and, if they desire to teach in the schools, they 
should be required to make a preparation the equal of that ol 
the best of the applicants from elsewhere. 

5. Teachers within the system must keep th^nselves profes 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 203 

sionally alive and render good community service as a condi- 
tion to the retention of their places. 

6. While any one may file an application for a position, the board 
should reserve the right of passing over all applicants, and of 
inviting specially competent teachers from elsewhere to fill 
positions, even though such have filed no formal applications. 

7. The continual selection of teachers who have had little or no 
educational experience outside of the city or of the immediate 
community tends to result in an inbreeding process which is 
inimical to the best interests of the children in the schools. A 
certain percentage of new blood from time to time is desirable, 
and should be drawn into the system from abroad. 

To establish such principles of action may require time 
and tact and community education, but their final estab- 
lishment is of fundamental importance to the welfare of the 
schools. 

Standards which should prevail. Another step in im- 
proving the conditions surrounding the selection of teachers 
is to get certain definite standards of competency formu- 
lated and adopted by the board of education. Such give 
both the board and the superintendent a foundation to 
stand upon, and eliminate the most poorly prepared of the 
applicants. The standards which ought to prevail generally 
in city school systems may be stated, briefly, as follows : — 

1. No one should be considered for a position as a teacher in a 
kindergarten or of a special subject or type of instruction who 
has not been graduated from a four-year high school, or 
equivalent institution, and in addition presents evidence of 
having made satisfactory special preparation, as certified to 
by diplomas or other credentials. 

2. No one should be considered for a position in an elementary 
school who has not been graduated from a four-year high 
school, or equivalent institution, and, in addition, been grad- 
uated from a normal school. A year of teaching experience 
in some other place would be a still further advantage. 

3. No one should be considered for a position in an intermediate 
school who has not, in addition to the requirements for an 
elementary-school position, had at least two years of worii in 



204 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

a college or university, or, in lieu of the above, been graduated 
from a college and had either practice-teaching, or one year 
of classroom experience. 

4. No one should be considered for a position in a high school 
who has not been graduated from a college or university of 
standing, and who has not made special preparation to teach 
the line of educational work for which the candidate applies. 

5. Before final election each candidate must file with the super- 
intendent of schools : — 

(a) Evidence of the possession of a valid teacher's certificate 
of the proper grade, or credentials which will entitle the 
candidate to such.^ 

(6) A certificate from the health supervisor of the city schools, 
if there be such an officer employed, and from a local phy- 
sician designated and paid by the board of education, in 
case no health supervisor is employed, stating that the 
candidate has been examined by him and found to be free 
from defects of hearing or contagious disease, and of suf- 
ficiently sound bodily vigor to undertake the work of in- 
struction in the schools. ^ 

6. The superintendent should also be satisfied that the appli- 
cant is of high personal character, free from bad habits, and 
likely to exert a good influence over pupils. 

In a small city, in which the above principles of action and 
standards for the employment of teachers prevail, the super- 
intendent will not find the selection of good teachers and 

1 In some cities the superintendent of schools is, or forms a part of, the 
examining committee which certifies aU teachers for the schools of the city. 
As a certificate to teach is academic in its nature, being based on the satis- 
factory completion of certain training or the satisfactory passing of certain 
examinations, it should be considered largely as a state authorization of 
employment and the payment of school funds to the holder. This is essen- 
tially a state or county function, and should be so handled. The employing 
and certificating functions should be separate, and the superintendent 
should not be subjected to the double local and personal pressure to cer- 
tificate as well as to employ. 

2 In the case of persons so distant as to make such a requirement before 
election an unnecessary hardship, this requirement might be temporarily 
waived and the candidate elected, subject to such an examination before 
beginning work. A certificate from a health director in another city might 
also, in special cases, be accepted. 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 205 

principals a difficult matter if the salary schedule is the 
equal of that of surrounding cities. If the salary schedule 
is much lower, or if low standards as to employment are the 
rule, he will have continual difficulty in securing the kind of 
teachers he wants. One of his important services, then, in 
the education of his board and the community will be to 
try to bring about better conditions surrounding entrance 
to and pay for the work of instruction. 

Methods of selecting teachers. The usual method by 
which the teacher problem is handled in most of our smaller 
cities is that by which the board of education, working 
largely through a committee on teachers, works in cooper- 
ation with the superintendent of schools in the selection 
and retention of teachers. If the superintendent is a man of 
good judgment, — fair, honest, and knows what he wants, — 
he can have his way in most cases. Honest and well-meaning 
boards tend to depend upon his judgment, and to follow 
his advice. In the smaller cities this is often not a bad 
plan to follow, the superintendent gradually building up 
his strength until the board virtually turns such matters 
over to him to handle. 

The chief difficulty with the method lies in the fact that 
boards change rapidly, and the power of the superintendent 
one year may be entirely replaced by committee control a 
few years later. The matter is of such fundamental im- 
portance to the successful conduct of the schools that the 
superintendent should be guaranteed certain legal rights in 
the matter of the nomination of teachers. 

No one can be more interested in securing the best 
teachers available than is the superintendent of schools; no 
one knows the needs of positions better than he; no one is 
likely to be able to discriminate better as to preparation, 
professional attitude, and adaptability than is he; and no 
one is less likely to engage in nepotism or politics or to be 



206 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

influenced by pull than he. He will from time to time make 
some mistakes, to be sure, but he will make a much smaller 
number than will teachers' committees or boards of educa- 
tion. Of almost equal importance with good selections, in 
the case of new teachers, will be the maintenance of as high 
professional standards as the salary schedule will permit, 
and the effect on the teachers in the schools of this concen- 
tration of authority in professional hands. 

Right rules of action. The board, as a representative of 
the people in the control of the schools, should have the 
right to approve or disapprove of the superintendent's selec- 
tions, though without the right of initiating substitute ap- 
pointments themselves. The following principles of action 
covering the matter represent conditions which ought to 
prevail : — 

1. The superintendent of schools should nominate all teachers, 
principals, supervisors, and assistant superintendents, in 
writing, to the board of education for election or for promo- 
tion. In the case of elementary rschool teachers the election 
should be to a position in the schools, all assignments to posi- 
tions being left to the superiutendent. 

2. The board may either conJSrm or disapprove his nominations, 
but should have no power of substituting other names of its 
own choice.^ 

3. In case any nomination is disapproved, the superintendent 
should then nominate a new person for the position. 

4. The board should be permitted to elect, without such nomina- 
tion, only in case the superintendent refuses to make a nomi- 
nation. 

5. The members of the board of education should refer all ap- 
plicants to the superintendent of schools, and refuse to dis- 
cuss positions with them. To this end the board should an- 

^ In the Report of the Chicago Educational Commission (p. 45), it was 
recommended that the superintendent make all appointments, promotions, 
transfers, and dismissals of teachers, reporting each action to the board of 
education, and that his action "shall stand as final, unless disapproved by 
a majority vote of all the members thereof, not later than the second meet- 
ing after the report is made." 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 207 

nounce that, by rule, it has given the power of nomination to 
the superintendent, and that the members do not desire ap- 
pHcants or their friends to visit them on the matter. 
6. In a city where a competitive examination system is in use, 
the board should refuse to see applicants or their friends in- 
dividually, and should announce that the attempt so to visit 
them will be regarded as unprofessional conduct, and will 
prejudice the applicant's chances of securing a position. 

Bases for selecting teachers. It is well for the superin- 
tendent of schools to have some system of rating applicants, 
by which he can defend his selections should they be called 
in question. Certain elements should enter into the forma- 
tion of judgments, and such should be given proper weight. 
These should include: — 

1. Professional preparation and experience. A low grade being 
given for the minimum preparation and experience required 
by the rules, or for too much experience under poor conditions, 
and increasing for larger preparation and valuable experience, 
up to a certain maximum grade. (For example, to 25.) 

2. Evidence as to professional success. No general letters of rec- 
ommendation to be considered. Candidates to submit names 
of persons engaged in educational work who can speak as to 
their training and tea<;hing success. From these, or others, 
confidential letters to be obtained, and the evidence rated. 
This rating may also be based, wholly or in part, on seeing the 
candidate at work in a schoolroom. (For example, to 40.) 

3. Personality and adaptability to the work of instruction. 
Based on a personal interview. (For example, to 25.) 

4. Physical examination by the health supervisor, or by a de- 
signated physician. (For example, to 10.) 

A combination of these ratings should show something as 
to the relative rank of the candidates. 

The competitive examination. In large school systems, 
where the number of applicants and vacancies are both 
large, a fifth element is often introduced, namely, a com- 
petitive professional examination,^ and this, too, is given 

^ This examination is not for purposes of certification, but is profes- 
sional in its nature. To enter it the candidate should hold or have creden- 



208 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRA.TION 

its proper rating. The ratings earned under each of the five 
heads are then added together and the candidate is given a 
ranking number which places him or her for the purpose of 
election to a teaching position.^ When such a competitive 
system is put into use the following principles of action 
should prevail : — 

1. On the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the 
board should elect, from those highest on the list, and without 
unnecessary delay, a number equal to or nearly equal to the 
estimated number of new teachers needed at the beginning of 
the following year. 

2. Further selections should be made, in each case, from the 
three remaining highest on the list. 

3. For satisfactory cause the board may, on recommendation of 
the superintendent, subsequently remove any name from the 
numbered list. 

4. Position on the list automatically to end after one, one aud a 
half, or two years, as may be most desirable. 

In giving such competitive examination the written test 
should involve enough questions and enough choice to give 
a candidate a chance to show what professional conceptions 
he or she has, and the personal examination should be long 
enough and intimate enough to enable the authorities to 
measure the candidate properly. ^ 

tials for a legal certificate, valid in the city for the kind of position for 
which application is made. The examination should offer the candidate 
the choice of a certain number of questions, say five, to be selected from a 
hst of say ten, and dealing more or less directly with the problems of in- 
struction in the schools. 

^ For example, suppose a candidate's average for all points was 87.3 
per cent, and this placed the candidate No. 62 for an elementary-school 
position, out of 85 candidates. Suppose also that the city needed from 60 
to 70 teachers a year, about 40 to 45 in September, and the remainder 
during the year. Such a candidate would better hold her present position 
until January, and then could hardly expect more than a call to the sub- 
stitute list. A candidate whose number was 20 could expect election to a 
position at once. 

2 The personal examination need not necessarily be taken at the same 
time as the other tests, but might be given at any time. In a large city 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 209 

Electing applicants vs. hunting teachers. One of the best 
features of the competitive-examination plan is that teachers 
from the outside are placed on a plane of equality with the 
home girls in the matter of securing positions. Personal 
merit now counts instead of personal pull, and the result 
under such a system, if the salary schedule warrants, is to 
draw into the city the best teachers in that part of the 
State. Where the superintendent has full power to nominate 
all teachers, and makes an effort to search out good teachers 
elsewhere, the entrance is almost equally easy to compe- 
tent teachers from the outside.^ 

This is as it should be. A city has so much money to 
spend for teachers to teach its children, and it should spend 
this money so as to get the best educational results. To es- 
tablish a good salary schedule and then limit competition 
to home girls, is to waste money. If good salaries are to be 
paid the market should be wide, and the offerings should 
be looked over carefully. This involves the hunting of 
teachers, instead of sitting down and waiting for appli- 

a special examination board, consisting of two assistant superintendents 
and three principals, might be created to meet candidates any Saturday 
morning, during certain months. The average rating of the five could be 
filed as the personal examination rating. 

^ Superintendent Carr, in an address before the National Education 
Association (Proceedings, 1905, p. 183), laid down the following rules for 
increasing the eflBciency of our public school work: — 

1. Create a greater public desire for good teaching by demonstrating 
the difference between the counterfeit and the genuine article. 

2. Break down the Chinese walls which seem to surround many towns 
and cities, and employ good teachers wherever they may be found. 

3. Eliminate politics, nepotism, favoritism, and the whole brood of 
like isms from the management of school affairs. 

4. Magnify the office of teacher. 

6. Make the tenure of office for good teachers absolutely secure; ab- 
solutely insecure for poor ones. 

6. Promote for efficiency; dismiss for inefficiency. 

7. Protect professional teachers from ruinous competition with non- 
professionals. 

8. Pay teachers in proportion to the service rendered. 



210 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

cants. It should be made one of the superintendent's func- 
tions to hunt up good teachers, investigate them, and be 
ready to nominate them to the board, as needed. Most 
school boards are reluctant to give the superintendent such 
authority, though few things that they could do would do 
so much for the improvement of the schools. Some day, 
when school supervision becomes more of an expert service 
than it is to-day, the right of nominating all teachers for 
appointment will be given to superintendents by general 
state law.^ The tendencies in this direction are already 
clearly marked. 

2. The tenure of teachers 
The usual plan. It was customary once to engage teachers 
for only a single term, the school year being divided into 
two or three terms. In a few scattered localities this plan is 
still followed, but in most communities the yearly election 
is the plan most commonly in use. Not only has election 
for a full year been authorized, but, so thoroughly has the 
annual conception as to schools been established, our state 
laws have also commonly forbidden contracts extending be- 
yond the close of the official school year.^ Still more, school- 
board rules not infrequently require all teachers to file an- 
nual written application for the retention of their positions, 
and each spring the formal annual election of teachers for 
the ensuing twelve months is the chief educational event of 
the year. Some of the most disgraceful occurrences associ- 
ated with the administration of public education in our 

1 Quite a number of our cities have changed their rules so as to pro- 
vide for this; a number of bills to this effect have been introduced into 
recent legislatures; and Ohio has so provided for its cities by general state 
law. 

2 In a few States a longer tenure is now permitted. In Massachusetts, 
for example, teachers who have served one year in a town or city may be 
elected "at the pleasure of the school committee." 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 211 

cities have taken place in connection with these annual 
elections of teachers.^ 

Each year the teaching force is overhauled by the board 
of education, formal conferences are held between the board 
or its teachers' committee and the principals of the schools, 
written charges are filed, formal hearings in special cases are 
sometimes held, teachers are kept in a condition of worry 
for weeks, and the board finally, after a great show of ac- 
tivity, drops a small number of teachers from the schools, 
and elects others to their places. 

Not infrequently much injustice is done. Sometimes the 
first notice a teacher has that her work has not been satis- 
factory is when she reads in the morning paper that some 
one else has been elected to the position she has held. 
Teachers, too, are sometimes dropped over the protest of 
the principal and the superintendent. More commonly, 
however, the injustice is the other way, teachers being re- 
tained who have been recommended for dismissal by both 
principal and superintendent, and others being elected 
whom the superintendent has opposed. In the annual 
scramble for places the interests of the children, for whom 
the school exists, are at times almost forgotten. 

Under such conditions the teachers soon recognize that 
their principal and superintendent are powerless to protect 
them, the best teachers go elsewhere or leave the work for 
some more attractive form of employment, while those who 
remain are rendered timid, and often hesitate to do their 
duty for fear of giving offence to some person of influence. 
The result is a condition of unrest in the school system which 
is not good for the schools. If we add to the above conditions 
a system of supervision which is inspectional rather than 

^ See Miss Salmon's article for many concrete cases. Also see an 
article in the Educational Review (vol. 25, pp. 538-39), entitled "What 
ought not to be possible." 



212 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

professionally helpful, is characterized by a lack of leadership 
and inspiration to effort, and a rigid, somewhat uniform, 
and sometimes senseless series of requirements for all, we 
get a situation which serves to keep teachers in a state of 
nervous tension which is most irritating. 

The uncertain tenure of teachers. Compared with em- 
ployees in other lines of work, the school teacher, under the 
annual-election plan, is not accorded the tenure of position 
given to street- or steam-railway employees, general business 
employees, policemen, firemen, or government clerks. None 
of these have to apply over and over for positions which 
they have been filling acceptably, nor run the chance of 
annual election with its attendant accidents and surprises. 
So long as these persons render eflBcient service they retain 
their places, and when they cease to do so they are first 
warned, and then perhaps transferred to a less important 
position, and finally dropped. Even the itinerant Methodist 
minister is treated better than are teachers in some of our 
cities. As a legal fact, every teacher, principal, and super- 
visor is automatically out of a position at the close of every 
school year, and the burden rests upon them to see that the 
school board reemploys them, instead of the burden resting 
upon the school board, as it ought, to dismiss those it does 
not want to retain, and explain their reasons for doing so. 

This condition is in part a tradition from early times, and 
in part the result of a board of rapidly changing laymen 
attempting to exercise professional functions. They have 
not the professional insight to enable them to see far enough 
to plan and to carry out a consistent educational policy for 
the schools; they lack standards for professional compe- 
tency; they are too subject to pressure; and in their official 
actions they are usually vacillating and uncertain. It is not 
an uncommon thing for a board of education, after much 
talk about the importance of efficient service, to drop 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 213 

twenty to thirty teachers, and then later, when the relatives, 
friends, and newspapers begin a defense of those dropped, to 
reinstate all those for whom the greatest pressure has been 
exerted. 

True, a good superintendent, vested with power, would in 
some cities at first remove more teachers than the board 
does, but this would be because the board has for long 
elected persons not fitted to the service, and has not insisted 
on the maintenance of professional standards by those in 
service. True, also, that in many cities teachers need give 
little thought to the matter of retaining their positions, 
reelection being a mere formality, and every satisfactory 
teacher knowing that retention is certain. Where such con- 
ditions prevail there has usually been a long period of com- 
munity and school-board education as to the purpose of 
public education, and the politician has been replaced by 
the superintendent in the selection and retention of teachers. 

The life-tenure movement. The result has been that the 
teachers in a number of our cities have gone to the legislature 
and secured laws giving them virtual life tenure. In large 
part the teachers have been driven to this by the incompe- 
tence and injustice of school boards in handling the matter 
of appointments, but the desire to escape from the pressure 
for personal improvement has also been an actuating motive 
with some. There is usually a provision in these laws that 
teachers may still be dismissed, after a public trial, for im- 
morality, incompetency, or insubordination, but practically 
no teachers are so dismissed in cities having this life-tenure 
plan. Formal written charges must be filed, notices of trial 
served, and the person charged may be represented by at- 
torneys. Nominally it is a trial of the teacher against whom 
charges have been filed, but in reality it is always the super- 
intendent and the principal who are put on trial. 

Often the publicity and the personalities of the trial leave 



I 



214 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the teachers and the pubHc in no good frame of mind toward 
the schools, and the damage done by the public trial and 
the newspaper notoriety is often not repaired for months 
to come. Any attorney, without difficulty, can create a 
bad situation for the superintendent and the board at such 
a trial. Parents, whose sympathies have been worked upon, 
are summoned in numbers to testify for the teacher; the 
superintendent and the principal who testify against the 
teacher are bullied and grilled; and the board, in its efforts 
to protect witnesses against a browbeating lawyer and to 
bring the hearing to a conclusion, can be led into technical 
errors during the trial, and on these an appeal to the coiuls 
can be based, in case the board dismisses the teacher, with 
the practical certainty that the courts will regard the pre- 
ponderance of common evidence and the technical flaws as 
more important than the professional evidence submitted 
and the interests of the children in the schools. The almost 
certain result is a legal reinstatement, with full back pay. 
The result on the schools is thoroughly vicious.^ 

Effect of life tenure on the schools. That all teachers who 
are reasonably efficient at the time such a law is enacted 
will continue to be so ten or fifteen years in the future, any 
one who has had much to do with teachers or who under- 
stands human nature knows will not be the case. Most teach- 
ers keep themselves alive and growing, even under adverse 
conditions, but there are others who render their best service 
when under the influence of a constant but gentle spur. 
Such is only human nature, and teachers are no exceptions 
to this rule. For certain teachers, one of the surest means 
for producing inefficiency is to take away this constant 

^ San Francisco forms a splendid illustration of this situation. There 
the courts reinstated teachers, dismissed after trial, with such regularity 
that both the board and the superintendent have practically given up all 
attempts at bringing charges against teachers. 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 215 

incentive to growth, activity, and personal endeavor by 
granting them Hfe-tenure after a somewhat hmited service. 
The effect is also demoralizing to other teachers in the 
schools. From the ease with which teachers can secure life- 
tenure legislation from legislatures one would think that the 
popular conception of schools is that they exist chiefly to 
provide positions for teachers. 

If our purpose is to develop a self-satisfied and an unpro- 
gressive teaching force, to ruin our American public schools, 
and eventually to turn education, for those who can afford 
it, over to the private and parochial schools to handle, leav- 
ing public schools to minister to the needs only of the poorer 
and more ignorant classes, then life-tenure laws for teachers 
and principals is one of the surest means for doing this. So 
large and so important a public business as education — 
where personal growth is so necessary to meet changing 
needs — cannot be successfully conducted on such a basis 
of employment. Life tenure for all efficient teachers there 
should be, but it should come as a deserved reward for faith- 
ful and efficient service, and not as a guaranteed legislative 
right to all. 

A middle ground. Between these two extremes lies a 
middle ground which is just both to teachers and to the 
schools, and that is indefinite tenure. When a new teacher 
enters the service of the city, in any capacity, he or she 
should be under observation for two or three years, varying 
somewhat with different teachers and different positions, 
and during this time there should be annual reappointments, 
on the recommendation of the superintendent. After this pro- 
bationary period has been successfully passed, the teacher 
should then either be reelected for some long period, say 
four or five years, or placed on indefinite tenure. Under the 
former the position would be guaranteed for the period 
stated, subject to reconsideration at the end of each such 



£16 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

period; under the latter the annual elections would cease for 
all time, the teacher being merely continued in the service 
from year to year mthout any action on either side, and un- 
til such time as the board, for cause, and upon the recom- 
mendation of the superintendent, should see fit to terminate 
the contract. 

This right to terminate the contract for cause is an impor- 
tant right, and should not be denied to school authorities. 
To deny it is to say that the teachers' places are more im- 
portant than the educational rights of the children. No 
superintendent who is wise will desire to dismiss many 
teachers or principals. If a teacher or principal will cooper- 
ate it is easier to educate them than to dismiss them, and 
far more pleasant. If superintendents were given legal con- 
trol of the selection and designation for retention of all 
teachers, so that boards of education and their committees 
were deprived of all powers in the matter except the ap- 
proval or the disapproval of the superintendent's recommen- 
dations, the question of the dismissal of teachers would, 
in most communities, occupy a less important position. 
Still, good teachers do not always continue to be good, and 
an occasional removal will need to be made for the welfare 
of the service.^ 

Terminating tiie contract. The notice of dismissal should 
in itself be given under certain definite conditions which are 
just to both sides. In the first place, no teacher should be 

1 "The removing power is of more importance than the appointing 
power. Appointees must be tested. There is no official power of divination 
in the choice of subordinates. Failures are conspicuous in every business, 
public and private, large and small, in making the first choice. Personal 
elements are often more potent than mental ability. Scholarship is not 
everything. Certification may cover, but not eradicate, sins. Therefore, 
whether this appointing power remains where it is now so jealously guarded, 
or is subjected to various experiments, the ultimate reform must take care 
of the removing power, as to which our school systems are lamentably 
wej*k." (J. C. Hendrix, in Educational Review, vol. 3, p. 262.) 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 217 

liable to a termination of contract for failure to render sat- 
isfactory services who has not been notified of the deficien- 
cies, and given an opportunity and reasonable assistance to 
remedy them. If improvement does not result, suflacient to 
warrant the retention of the teacher, the superintendent 
should then recommend that written notice be served on 
the teacher, for specified reasons, to the effect that the 
board desires to terminate the contract with the teacher to 
take effect at the close of the school year. If the board ap- 
proves the notice should be given to the teacher, and not 
later than the last day the schools are in session during the 
school year, and when so served the contract with such 
teacher terminates at the end of such school year. For the 
sufficiency of the reasons for terminating the contract the 
superintendent and the board should be the sole judge, 
without the meddling of lawyers or the interference of the 
courts. Teachers not so notified continue in service from 
year to year.^ 

This middle ground is equally just to both sides. The 
usual condition is not just to teachers, who have spent 
years in making preparation for a lifework of service, and 
the life-tenure plan is not just to taxpayers or to the chil- 
dren in the schools. The latter certainly have rights as well 
as the teachers. The middle ground gives practically life 
tenure to every worthy teacher and school officer, but merely 
reserves to the board of control for the schools, acting on the 
recommendation of their chief executive officer, and only 
after helpful advice has failed to bring the desired im- 
provement, the right quietly to remove from the schools 
those who should not be there. To say that a school board 

^ Teachers who do not desire to retain their positions should, in turn, 
notify the superintendent in writing not later than a certain date, to be 
sure of proper release. In general, though, most school superintendents art 
always willing to release a teacher who is offered a better position else- 
where, as soon as the position left can be properly filled. 



218 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

has such power by trial, under the life-tenure laws, is to 
cherish a delusion. The machinery of such action is of 
course provided, but the difficulties in the way are such 
that it can seldom if ever be carried to a successful con- 
clusion. In addition, the notoriety and the bitterness en- 
gendered by such public trials is demoralizing to the schools, 
and should be avoided by both sides in the interests of the 
children and the good name of the schools. 

Supervisory officers and tenure. Principals of schools, 
supervisors of special subjects, and assistant superintendents 
of schools should be given the same tenure as teachers, — 
that is, indefinite tenure. Any efficient supervisory officer 
will have no difficulty in maintaining his position under 
such tenure. When we pass to the superintendent of schools, 
however, the conditions of tenure, in the interests of efficient 
service, should be somewhat different. 

A superintendent stands for a different quality of service 
from that rendered by a teacher, and to a large degree from 
that rendered by a principal or a special supervisor. It is 
primarily his business to plan and to lead. At times he must 
direct, at times he must show backbone in resisting improper 
plans and people, and occasionally he must put his back 
against the wall and fight. He ought not to be a pugnacious 
individual, but he will not be true to the interests he serves 
if he is not willing to stand firmly for right principles of 
action in school affairs. A superintendent in a modern city 
must belong to the vertebrate, and not to the jelly-fish, 
class. To enable him to stand by his guns when submission 
or retreat would be shameful, he needs protection from flank 
attacks, so that those who would indirectly beat him down 
in his efforts to protect the educational interests of the 
children under his care may be made to fight him in the 
open and face to face. 

The two flank movements usually made by boards of 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 219 

education, in the process of reducing a superintendent to 
submission, are to attack his tenure of office and his salary. 
To prevent this, a superintendent of schools, after possibly 
a trial period of one year, should be elected for certain 
definite periods and covering a reasonably long time, — four 
or five years are perhaps the most desirable terms, — and 
during such term of office the board of education should not 
be permitted to dismiss him except for serious cause, ^ and 
then only by a practically unanimous vote (four fifths or 
five sevenths, for example). Neither should the board be 
permitted to reduce his salary at all during his term of office. 
This gives the superintendent freedom from attack along 
these lines for a certain definite period of time, during which 
he can plan and carry out a definite educational policy. 

No better method for reducing a superintendent to subjec- 
tion could be devised than an annual reelection, along with 
the teachers, or a longer tenure coupled with an annual salary 
determination, and it is the method employed by boards of 
education all over the United States to enable them to retain 
their control of the schools. Under the plan suggested above, 
at the end of such a four- or five-year period, the superin- 
tendent should expect the results of his work to justify his 
actions and should be willing to have his services reviewed 
and reappraised. In a position where so much depends upon 
the efficiency of the individual, and where efficiency at 
forty may so easily change to inefficiency at fifty or fifty- 
five, a periodical review of a superintendent's services is very 
desirable. Life tenure for superintendents would be an even 
more serious mistake than for teachers. 

1 It is perhaps desirable to give a board of education the right to remove 
a superintendent, after trial, for immorality, incompetency, or willful neglect 
of duty, the deposed superintendent having, in turn, the right to appeal 
the decision to the chief school officer of the State, who should pass on 
the sufficiency of the evidence and should have power to reinstate a su- 
perintendent unjustly dismissed. 



220 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Assistant superintendents. As was pointed out in Chap- 
ter XIII, assistant superintendents bear a particularly con- 
fidential relation to the superintendent. Upon their loyalty, 
efficiency, and thorough cooperation much of a superin- 
tendent's success depends. They represent his cabinet, and 
he should have large powers of choice in their selection. To 
elect a new superintendent, to represent a new educational 
policy, and then to weight him down with a body of assistant 
superintendents who represent an old and displaced regime 
or an antiquated conception of education, is somethiug like 
tying a millstone around his neck and then expecting him 
to swim. In the interests of efficient service an assistant 
superintendent should be on the same indefinite tenure as 
previously described for teachers, so far at least as the 
assistant superintendency is concerned, being subject to re- 
assignment to a subordinate supervisory position, on the 
recommendation of the superiutendent, at the close of any 
school year, if in the judgment of the superintendent the 
assistant is not satisfactory for the type of service desired. 
A progressive and capable superintendent cannot carry out 
a progressive educational policy if his chief lieutenants are 
weak, reactionary, or disloyal, and permanency of tenure 
should not be expected in such positions. 

Assignment of the teaching staff. In all elections of mem- 
bers of the teaching corps the election should be to the 
educational department, and not to a speciQc position, unless 
the superintendent should desire so to specify in recom- 
mending the election. In any case all assignments to posi 
tion, and all transfers from position to position if the same 
do not involve a change in salary, should be wholly in the 
hands of the superintendent of schools. He should know or 
be able to find out, and better than any one else, the peculiar 
demands of the different positions and the peculiar strength 
or weakness of iudividuals, and he should be able to effect 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 221 

a nicety of adjustment of teachers and principals to posi- 
tions such as no board of education or teachers* committee 
can. All promotions within the staff should also be made 
by the board, on his recommendation. Also on his recom- 
mendation, and for proper reasons, the board should have 
the right to transfer teachers or supervisory officers to less 
responsible positions, and carrying a smaller salary than 
that previously paid.^ 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. How are teachers selected in cities that you know? 

2. Should the application blank, which candidates are asked to fill out 
for the city educational authorities, ask for the religious affiliation or 
church preference of the candidate? Why? 

3. Why do low standards in the selection of teachers tend to lower the 
professional tone of a teaching force? 

4. Do such also tend to keep down wages? 

5. Why is selection from the list of applicants likely to be less desirable 
than the hunting of teachers? 

6. What would you think of a superintendent having a form of letter, 
which he sends to good teachers elsewhere, inviting them to make 
application for a position in his city? 

7. Why is a low salary schedule nearly always associated with low pro- 
fessional standards in the teaching force? Under what conditions 
might such not be the case? 

8. Do a high salary schedule and an efficient teaching force go together? 
Why? 

9. Assume that you have just been elected superintendent of schools in 
a community where the standards for selection and retention of 
teachers have always been low. What steps would you take, and 
about how long would you expect it to take you, to educate the 
board and community up to proper principles of action: — 

^ No business corporation could pay dividends if it adhered to the prin- 
ciple, followed by most of our schools, of always paying a teacher or a 
principal the highest salary they have worked up to in the school system, 
regardless of the service rendered. Only the very poorest, the dishonest, 
or the profligate are discharged by most corporations, but men are fre- 
quently transferred to positions carrying less responsibility and salary, and 
others are put in their places. The efficient are promoted and the inefficient 
are reduced. Such a plan applied to teachers would enable a superintendent 
to retain some teachers whom otherwise he ought to displace entirely. 



!22 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

(a) If the community is poor and can pay only relatively small 
salaries? 

(b) If the community can afford good salaries? 

10. Is the daughter of a large taxpayer any more entitled to a position 
than the daughter of one who pays little or no taxes? 

11. Assuming that "home girls" have no more right to positions than 
girls from the outside, are there good reasons for choosing such if 
they are the equal in training of outside teachers? 

12. In quite a large city, do you think it desirable to select all teachers for 
the elementary schools from those educated and trained in the city? 

13. Why is a physical examination and a health certificate a desirable 
requirement on the part of teachers? Should janitors also be required 
to comply wdth such a requirement? 

14. Would it also be desirable to require teachers in service to take such 
an examination either (a) periodically, or (b) on request? Should 
teachers and other employees of the school department have the 
privilege of such an examination, at their own request, from the 
school health officer? 

15. Would the recommendation of the Chicago Educational Commission 
as to the power of the superintendent to appoint and report, and the 
board to veto, be a better plan than the board's approval or disap- 
proval of the superintendent's nomination, in the case of teachers, 
principals, supervisors, etc., in (a) a large city? (6) a smaller city? 

16. Compare college presidents and city superintendents in the matter of 
the selection and appointment of teachers. Compare college teachers 
with public-school teachers in the matter of tenure. 

17. Why is it desirable that candidates for positions should not visit 
school-board members? If the school board or its teachers' com- 
mittee desire to see candidates, how should it be done? 

18. Do you know any cities where such standards of action in the matter 
of the selection of teachers prevail? 

19. In how small a city, and under what conditions, would you think 
it desirable to introduce the competitive examination for applicants 
for teachers' positions? 

20. What are some of the disadvantages of a competitive examination, on 
fixed dates, in all but the largest school systems? 

21. Would the competitive examination idea be applicable to high-school 
or special teachers? Why? 

22. Does the argument for indefinite tenure for teachers appeal to you as 
sound? If not, why not? 

23. Is it desirable to reinstate a teacher who has once been dismissed? 

24. Why, after a teacher has proved his or her efficiency by five years of 
useful service, is it imsafe to assume that such person will be an effi- 
cient teacher after a lapse of fifteen years? 

25. What reasons do you see for so many promising superintendents de- 
clining in efficiency after they have passed fifty years of age? 



SELECTION AND TENURE OF TEACHERS 223 

26. What consultative rights, in the matter of the selection, assignment, 
or transfer of teachers, should be accorded to — 
(a) The principal of an elementary school? 
(6) The principal of a high school? 
(c) The head of a department in a high school? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Draw up a form of application blank for candidates to fill out who 
apply for a position in your city, indicating in such what you would 
desire to have them give you. 

2. Draw up a form of inquiry blank such as you would like to use in 
looking up their references, and writing to others about their training 
and success. 

3. Assume that the board of education emplojong you has begun to 
think of the desirability of ttirning over to you the duty of sorting 
out and nominating all teachers for election, and has asked you to 
make a report to the board, setting forth the arguments for the pro- 
posal and against the present plan. Draw up such a report, in the 
proper form, and show on what basis you would propose to sort out 
and nominate teachers. 

4. Assuming that you have been superintendent at the city of X for 
some years, that the board of education and the community have 
come to have confidence in yom* judgment, fairness, and professional 
skill, and that the board has finally become convinced of the desira- 
bility of revising its rules relating to the employment and tenure of 
teachers so as to bring them into harmony \vith your recommenda- 
tions, which we will assume to be those of this chapter. The board, 
by resolution, directs you to so revise that division of the rules and 
regulations and to submit your revision to them for approval. Draw 
up such a revision. 

5. Make up a form which you would use in grading the probable effi- 
ciency of applicants for positions in your city. 

6. Look up and report upon the estimated efficiency of the competitive- 
examination system for the selection of teachers as worked out in such 
cities as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Albany, Lowell, or New York City. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Ballou, F, W. The Appointment of Teachers in Cities. 202 pp. Harvard 
Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1915. 

A critical and constructive study. A construcjtive plan for appointing teachers is 
appended. f 

Blewett, Ben. "The Merit System in St. Louis"; in Proceedings of Na- 
tional Education Association, 1905, pp. 241-44. 

Basis of appointment, and reports on the efficiency of teachers and principals as 
a basis for retention. 



224 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Chicago lU. Report of ike Educational Commis>um. (1899.) 

Chicago iU^ IV I g J on the examination, appointment, and promoUon of teachers. 

Draper A S "The Crucial Test ol the PubUc Schools"; m his Amen^an 

^ttira:^! tte^^cniUe, and the danger o, the teache. p.ohUm in 

Draperi's: Neeeesary Ban. of the Teacher's Tenure. « pp. Bardeen. 

^^TdSi'ivt before the New Yo,k State Teache«- A,»ciation. 

Tx 4 <? "TheTeacherandthePosition";inhis4mmcanra«co4ion, 

^Trt iv chlp^Ti Also in £d«.a.«.nai K.««», vol. «0. pp. 3(H43. 

^'Ho^ltutLnt a. to eontraet,. ten.e. and the mutna. oh.^a«on, o, boa^d and 

^ ,!"'"''" T " The Fmediencv ot importing Teachers of Approved Merit 
°"Tom wTthor: KTcity "; i^ P.Win,, of National MuaU^ 

Associatim, 1904, pp. 322-26. 
Dutton rVtrSnedden, D. S. The AdmMraiim of Public Educatum 

%tp^r?v'o!r;eifi:trnLannmbe,oUtatemen.,oHact.^ 

EUot:°Crr ^t: T:irTen.e », OSce-; in his Educati^ B. 

farm, pp. 49-58. 

A brief but clear statement on the subject. ^ 

Hendrix,J.C. "The Best Method ot appointing Public Sch«> Teachers . 
TE<i«aiionaiBme»,vol.S,pp.260-61. (March 1892.) 

A good artiele b, the then president of the BrooHyn Board of Education. 

Hunt W A. "The Relation of the School Board and the Tochers , m 
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1900, pp. 62o-Sl. 
^ A itZttf an ex.p,esident of the MinnesoU Association of School Boards. 

Monroe, Paul (editor). Crtop^ia »/ »on^ ^^, 

Portland, Ore. Report 0/ the Survey of the PuMic SoW S,^m. (1913.) 
in no Reprinted bv World Book Co., Yonkers, 1915. 
"ch^p^e. w'o" the e,.e\ion and tennje of teacher, gives a nnn.be, of good Oins- 
tration. which back np the argnment of this chapter. Tethers in 

TJ„n.r A T "The Merit System of Rating and Rerating Teachere in 
^ B;stn^-; in raiofw'Bmm vol. 40. pp. 193-200. (September, 

^''D!scrihes the system in nse, and points onliU advantages. ,.„„„.. 

Salmon, Lucy M. "Civil-Ser^e Reform Principles in Education , m 
Educational Reviem. vol. 25, pp. 348-55. ^„«ially mth rdewMe 

Contains many iUustraUons of mismanagement by boards, especially wiu. 

to teachers' positions. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE TEACHING CORPS 

11. Training and Supervision 
Whatever plan or plans are employed in selecting 
teachers, and whatever demands as to training and experi- 
ence are made of candidates for positions, teachers entering 
the force need to be stimulated to increase their prepara- 
tion, and the classroom work which they do needs helpful 
professional supervision. These two features of the teach- 
ing problem will form the subject-matter of this chapter. 

1. The training of teachers 
Leavening the teaching corps. The corps of teachers with 
which a school system starts each year ought, taken as a 
whole, to be an improvement over the corps of the preceding 
year, but this desirable condition cannot be unless the new 
teachers entering the force rank higher in training, teaching 
skill, and personal culture than the average of the teachers 
previously in service. Whatever plan is devised for selecting 
teachers, it is important that the incoming teachers should 
contribute something to the leavening of the whole corps. 
A superintendent ought, each year, to be able to feel that, 
in consequence of the good selections made, the teachers 
entering his schools are an improvement over those of pre- 
vious years in education, training, and teaching skill. Such 
a condition materially lightens the duties of the supervisory 
corps, because the constant introduction of such a stream of 
new teachers brings new ideas, new enthusiasm, and new 
standards of educational and professional preparation to all. 



226 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Professional standards for entrance. To this end, as was 
pointed out in the last chapter, good standards for academic 
and professional preparation should be established by the 
rules and be insisted upon for all. For present-day city 
school work, graduation from a good high school, with a 
good two-year normal-school course in addition, is not 
too high a standard to insist upon from elementary-school 
teachers, and at least one year of teaching experience else- 
where would add still further to the teacher's equipment for 
satisfactory service. Also graduation from a good college oi 
university, with special preparation in some line or lines of 
secondary-school instruction and some professional study 
in addition, is not too much to demand of teachers for the 
high school. With the recent multiplication of good normal 
schools in our different American States, the increase in the 
number of colleges offering both academic and professional 
education, and the increasing percentage of trained teachers, 
it has become relatively easy for a city, which has anything 
like a satisfactory salary schedule, to make and to enforce 
such academic and professional demands. 

As was stated also in the last chapter, it is an important 
part of the education of the candidate to have gone away 
from home for this professional preparation and early class^ 
room experience. It is a valuable element in the train- 
ing of any one to go away from home, to come in contact 
with people of different ideas and ideals, to learn new ways 
and new methods of doing things, and to have one's horizon 
enlarged by rubbing up against people who look at things 
somewhat differently from the home people. The home girl 
who has had such an experience will contribute much more 
to the strength of the school system when she enters it than 
the one who has never had such an experience. 

The local training-school. As a means for insuring that 
the new teachers entering the elementary schools shall have 



I 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 227 

had some professional training for the work, a number of our 
cities have estabHshed a local city normal school, or training- 
course, where the high-school graduates who desire to teach 
in the elementary schools of the city may first be given 
some professional preparation for the work of instruction. 
Most of these teachers' courses were established twenty oi 
thirty years ago, when salaries were lower, normal schools 
were weaker, and trained teachers were much less common 
than is the case to-day; and many of the courses have 
consisted very largely of practical work, being more in the 
nature of apprentice schools, with only a small amount of 
time given to theoretical instruction. Within recent years, 
due in large part to the development of state normal 
schools and the increase in the number of trained teachers, 
there has been a tendency to abandon such com-ses in the 
smaller cities, and materially to improve those in the larger 
ones. 

If home girls only or very largely must be taken for ele- 
mentary-school teachers, due either to a low salary schedule 
or to peculiar local conceptions as to the filling of places, the 
training given in such schools or classes, and the observation 
and assistance work in the schools, do much to offset the 
disadvantages occasioned by such an unsatisfactory basis 
of selection. In the smaller cities such courses are often de- 
fended on the ground that they are far better than nothing, 
and that without such a course all the new teachers would 
enter the service without any professional training what- 
ever. 

Limitations to such training. All such plans for securing a 
trained teaching force are, however, subject to a number of 
limitations which make it difficult for any except the largest 
cities to provide anything like an adequate professional 
preparation for the work of teaching. 

In the first place, no city of less than 200,000 to 250,000 



228 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

inhabitants ^ can afford to provide the material equipment 
or the staff necessary for such a school. This equipment 
and staff should be at least the equal for the work attempted 
of that provided in the better state normal schools. The 
equipment should be good, both in building and teaching 
material; the teaching staff should be able, in part drawn 
from outside the city, and especially selected with reference 
to the city's problems; and the instruction offered should be 
such as to attract the best, rather than the poorest, of the 
high-school graduates. No city of less than 200,000 popula- 
tion has a yearly demand for a sufficient number of teachers ^ 
to warrant the expense of preparing them, if the preparation 
is properly made.^ Most cities would find it far better, and 
cheaper as well if the amount of money spent on the training 
is what must be spent to get the right kind of results,* to 
abandon all attempts to train their own teachers, increase 

^ There were, in 1910, but fifty cities in the United States which had 
100,000 inhabitants, but twenty-eight which had 200,000, and but nineteen 
which had 250,000. 

2 Such a city will ordinarily need from forty to fifty new elementary- 
school teachers each year, while a city of 100,000 wall not ordinarily need 
over tv/enty to twenty-five new elementary-school teachers yearly. From 
two to four per cent will represent displacements and resignations, while 
growth and development of the system will be represented by not over two 
per cent in a city whose population is about stationary, and from six to 
eight per cent in a growing city. Perhaps from three to ten per cent, vary- 
ing with the city, will represent the yearly demands for new elementary- 
school teachers. 

3 One trouble with many of these courses — most of them in fact — is 
that they give an inadequate preparation and are too easy to get through. 
The practice work is often so overemphasized that it becomes apprentice- 
ship training, rather than thoughtful preparation for teaching, and the 
teachers turned out lack, in consequence, any fundamental philosophy for 
their work on which they can grow later. 

^ A city training-school ought to be as well equipped for its work as is 
a city high school, and ought to cost about as much to maintain. It ought 
to be, too, distinctively a leader in the city's educational system, setting 
standards, initiating new plans, trying out experiments, stimulating personal 
improvement, and giving tone to the whole school system of the city. 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 229 

their salary schedules, and try to attract to their service 
the best-trained teachers in the State. 

Effect of such courses on the school system. In the second 
place, such courses result in an inbreeding which is harmful 
to the school system. If the training-class turns out enough 
graduates to fill all vacancies, new teachers from the out- 
side have practically no chance to get in. The city having 
provided a training-school, the high-school graduates of the 
city having completed the course, and the city having placed 
its approval on them by graduating them, they and their 
friends naturally expect that they will be given positions in 
the schools.^ Even when the number graduated is not suffi- 
cient to fill all the vacancies, the training-class serves to 
establish the idea that home girls are to have the home places, 
and other home girls, lacking the regular training, are usu- 
ally put in to supply the deficiency, on the theory that the 
training-school teachers, in their rounds with the appren- 
tices, will look after them also. Sometimes the presence of 
a training course opens the way to a most disreputable type 
of petty local politics.^ 

The result of the process is an inbreeding which in time 
saps the vigor and strength of the school system. The pro- 

1 Ayres, in his Springfield (Illinois) Survey, states that there the implied 
obligation, after thirty-two years' existence of the teachers' training-school, 
had become so clearly recognized that the school board placed those finish- 
ing the one-year training-course on the substitute list, at a low salary, until 
vacancies occurred. {The Public Schools of Springfield, p. 65.) 

2 "Many a local training-school is an open door to inefficiency, and 
furnishes the petty poUtician an opportunity for putting into practice his 
pet theory of doing the thing that benefits the community. \Miat he really 
does is to benefit a class at the expense of the entire community. ... If 
there is a local training-school the pressure of local politics is likely to be 
so strong that a very large percentage of local people who wish to teach 
will be admitted to the school, and will be allowed to remain there until 
they graduate, and then secure positions, irrespective of their abihty to do 
the highest grade of work. This condition of affairs is true in many cities 
in various parts of the United States to-day." (W. F. Gordy, in Proceedingi 
of National Education Association, 1906, p. 125.) 



£30 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

spective teachers, often taught by training-teachers them- 
selves inferior in grasp and technical preparation to those 
holding similar positions in the state normal schools, re- 
ceive, to begin with, an inferior training. All, too, are 
trained alike; all learn to do the same thing in the same way; 
all get the same working conceptions of the educational pro- 
cess. As a result, the teachers in the city system gain little 
by professional contact with one another, and lacking con- 
tact with teachers who have learned other ways of doing 
things and have different conceptions and ideals, the result 
is a uniformity throughout the school system ^ which may de- 
light the heart of an office-chair superintendent who loves 
uniform procedure, but which is deadening to the real life 
of a school system. One of the most important steps in 
increasing the efficiency of such a school system is to stop 
this exclusion of outside ideas and experiences by abohshing 
the training-class, spending the money the class has cost on 
increased salaries, and beginning to invite into the system 
successful teachers who represent a different type of training 
and who can bring in new methods, ideas, and ideals. Even 
in a large school system, where a city normal school can be 
maintained to the best advantage, teachers from other 
school systems ought to be brought in continually, because 
of the new ideas and differing experiences they can bring. 

Training vs. attracting teachers. Some of our city school 
systems, in contrast with such a procedure, make a deliber- 
ate attempt to hunt out promising teachers elsewhere and 
invite them to make application for positions. In our best- 

1 Ayres says that in Springfield his staff could tell a training-class grad- 
uate by merely seeing her conduct a recitation. {The Public Schools of 
Springfield, Illinois, p. 64.) In the Portland (Oregon) Survey it was 
reported that "it was the feehng of the members of the siu^vey staff, who 
inquired at all into the matter, that the poorest teachers seen in the 
schools were the products of this high-school training and pupil-teacher 
system." {Report of the Survey of the Public School System, p. 58.3 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 231 

managed school systems superintendents feel authorized to 
look up teachers in other places, and nominate them to the 
boards for appointment. The cities which handle the selec- 
tion of teachers best give large authority to their superin- 
tendents in such matters, putting the selection of teachers 
with them on much the same basis that college and univer- 
sity boards of trustees place the selection of their professors 
with the president of the institution. The result is that, if 
the salary standards and supervisory conditions warrant, 
such a city can draw to it the best of the normal and uni- 
versity graduates, within a wide radius, getting all the ad- 
vantages that come from a variety of training and teaching 
experience. Cities that can offer conditions which will appeal 
to teachers elsewhere are extremely short-sighted to attempt 
to train their own teachers, and in consequence cut off the 
possibility of employing better teachers than they can pos- 
sibly train. 

Training of teachers in service. Teaching is a calling which 
demands continual growth on the part of those engaged in 
it. The advance of our schools is so rapid that teachers who 
do not continue to increase their capacity for service in 
time cease to be of large usefulness to the system. To insure 
this continual growth calls for continual personal training, 
and not only should a certain amount of such training be 
expected of and required of teachers, but certain definite 
premiums should be placed on the efforts of teachers who 
voluntarily do more than is required.^ 

^ "The principles and practices, the theory and the art of education, 
are constantly undergoing, in common wath all other phases of civilization, 
modification and development. Likewise the field of education in which 
instruction is given, and the habits which education seeks to form, are 
always changing. It is necessary, therefore, if the institution of education 
is to render its lull service to humanity, if the public schools are to perform 
their full duty in the promotion of civilization, that every teacher, in so far 
as in his power lies, shall keep abreast of this development and change. 
No matter what the initial equipment of a teacher may be, he should 



232 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Personal growth, outside of that connected with the 
mere technique of instruction, seems to be exceedingly 
painful to the ordinary teacher. The normal-school gradu- 
ate, who might be expected to have a desire to continue 
study, often feels that her entire preparation has been made. 
In school systems where the home-product idea of appoint- 
ment prevails, it is often hard to induce teachers to under- 
take independent reading or study. Yet the remarkably 
rapid progress of educational theory and practice in this 
country cannot but mean that those who will not keep 
growing soon become relatively inefficient public servants. ^ 
The training that produced a satisfactory teacher for 1890 
or 1900, or even for 1910, will not suffice for a teacher for 1915 

be progressively efficient during his entire period of service. This means 
not that he should grow merely in those ways which are inseparably con- 
nected with his own individual experience, but rather that he should profit 
by the experience of the race in so far as it affects his ovm work." (H. Up- 
degraff, in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1911, p. 434.) 

^ Superintendent Van Sickle classifies teachers in service, who are more 
or less in need of further training, into the following groups (see Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1911, p. 437, for details as to each 
group) : — 

1. Superior teachers, who need no other stimulation than their own 
ideals of excellence. 

2. Teachers possessing a good degree of executive ability and adequate 
scholarship of the book-learning variety, but who resist change be- 
cause they honestly believe the old ways are better. 

5. Teachers lacking adequate scholarship or practical skill, or both, 
self-conscious and timid, because unacquainted ^\^th standards of 
work and valid guiding principles, desirous of avoiding observation, 
and doing their work in a more or less perfunctory and fortuitous 
manner. 

4. Teachers lacking adequate scholarship or practical skill, or both, 
but not conscious of this lack and therefore unaware of any need 
for assistance. 

6. Teachers yet in the early stages of their service. Such usually have 
had some professional training, and from it have gained a profes- 
sional attitude. Supervision should try to get these teachers into 
class 1, and prevent their developing the characteristics of class 2, 
3, or 4. 

Teachers in classes 1, 2, and 5 are ^^dlling to have their work 
and valued by competent and trusted supervisors. 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 233 

or 1920. The teacher must know more, and her ideals for 
public service must have expanded along with her years of 
service. Teachers are in no way exempt from the same con- 
ditions which produce inefficiency in other professional 
workers. 

Teachers' meetings. The welfare of the schools demands 
periodical meetings with teachers, and such are everywhere 
recognized as an essential element in preserving the unity 
of a system of schools. These meetings are needed for con- 
sidering together the educational policy of the school system, 
for the discussion of certain phases of school work and the 
progress of instruction, somewhat for administrative and 
supervisory purposes, and for inspirational purposes. These 
different purposes call for school-building meetings, meet- 
ings of principals and supervisors, grade meetings, meetings 
of the teachers of special types of schools, and general meet- 
ings of all the teachers. A superintendent could well afford 
to devote two afternoons a week and one Saturday morning 
a month to such purposes. A few days a year could also be 
devoted to a general institute of all the teachers, where new 
ideas and new inspiration are imparted to the teaching force 
by carefully selected persons from the outside.^ 

The planning and direction of these different meetings 
will require much care and thought, but will well repay the 
effort spent upon them. A year's work should be outlined 
for each, and even a two- or three-year cycle may be 
planned. Each meeting should have some definite purpose, 
and the teachers who attend should be made to feel that 
the meetings are worth their time. If the superintendent 

^ Miss Harris, a supervisor at Rochester, New York, describes {Proceed- 
ings of National Education Association, 1906, p. 120) a plan followed at 
Rochester by means of which five one-day teachers' institutes are held 
with the teachers of each grade each j^ear, using the state teachers' insti- 
tute time, and reducing the teachers' meetings after school to a minimum. 
Such a plan is more applicable to a large city than to a small one. 



234 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMESLSTRATION 

is the master of his problem he will find in these meetings 
his own largest inspiration to effort, and he will reap returns 
from them in the increased ease of supervision and the more 
wholesome attitude of his teaching force toward their work 
which will well repay him for the time and energy they de- 
mand. If his school system is not too large he can, in this 
way, conduct a form of normal school with his teachers, 
enlarging their outlook, increasing their technical prepara- 
tion, keeping them in touch with the best educational prog- 
ress elsewhere, inspiring them to new efforts, and develop- 
ing in them new ambitions to excel. 

Reading-circle work. As an adjunct to or as a part of 
the meetings with teachers and principals, there should be 
some definite professional reading each year. This is one of 
the most effective agencies for promoting the growth of 
teachers in the service. The effect on a teaching force of a 
careful study each year of a few good books, pertinent to 
the work they are doing, is cumulative, and the result over 
a five- or ten-year period is certain to be large. The habit it 
tends to establish with teachers is no small part of the 
benefit derived from such a practice. 

It is certainly not unreasonable to expect grade and high- 
school teachers to read and discuss two good well-selected 
books of a professional nature each year, relating more or 
less directly to their work, nor to expect principals of schools 
to read at least half a dozen good books and some magazine 
articles bearing on their administrative problems. These 
need to be well selected, should not be the same for all in the 
service, should not be too difficult nor too far afield, and 
some options may well be allowed. Outlines for study, 
with pertinent and suggestive questions for thought and 
discussion, add to the value of such work. 

State reading-circles in this country have rendered a very 
important service in awakening a professional attitude on 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 235 

the part of teachers, and the principle of the state reading- 
circle idea should be carried over into our city school admin- 
istration. It offers a superintendent an effective means for 
advancing the professional knowledge and enlarging the 
professional insight of teachers in service. Thousands of 
teachers in our States have been led to read and study 
professional books through the state reading-circle who 
would never otherwise have done so, and many teachers 
of little or no professional training have been stimulated to 
undertake a course of study in some professional school.^ 
The idea has made much less headway in our cities, particu- 
larly in the larger cities, but it could be and should be ap- 
plied to the needs of teachers there. ^ It stimulates thinking 
on the problems of instruction, deepens professional insight 
as to the means and purposes of education, increases the 
effectiveness of supervision, and tends to develop a pro- 
fessional attitude toward the work of teaching. 

Leaves of absence for study. The carrying along each 
year of certain professional study with teachers also serves 
another pin-pose, in that it tends to stimulate in them a 

^ The author has stated elsewhere his belief that the chief reason why 
so many men from the State of Indiana have become professional leaders 
in education, and why so many Indiana students are found each year in 
the leading summer schools, is that for thirty years the teachers of the 
whole State have been engaged in the study of professional books under 
the direction of the state reading-circle board. 

2 For example, the whole field of health work in the schools has opened 
up so recently that only the most recent graduates of the best normal schools 
know anything about child hygiene or health work, yet such study is far 
more important in the equipment of a teacher than methods of teaching 
arithmetic. Within the past five years teaching how to study, and how to 
handle disciplinary cases, has assumed new importance. The idea of 
adapting work to individual needs and guiding students toward life-careers, 
all recent, is of much importance to upper-grade teachers. Few school 
principals know much about the supervision or testing of teaching, or even 
of the hygiene of their school plant. These are only a few of the many 
lines along which profitable reading and study could be conducted, in part 
in connection with teachers' and principals' meetings. 



236 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

desire to undertake further academic or professional prepa- 
ration. To require teachers to carry on private study ic 
academic subjects and to pass examinations on such, while 
engaged in teaching, is of somewhat doubtful value. It may 
be and often is done at the expense of the instruction in the 
schools. To stimulate in teachers a desire to attend summer 
sessions and to take a year's leave of absence for travel or 
professional study is different in its results, and is likely to 
have the most favorable consequences for both teachers 
and the schools.^ 

Many superintendents, who must be regarded as authori- 
ties, contend that, after a certain number of years of service, 
most teachers reach a plane where they cease to make any 
substantial improvement without further study and train- 
ing. This point is usually placed at about the seventh or 
eighth year of teaching service. At this point these super- 
intendents contend that it is of great advantage to teachers 
to stop and spend a year in further professional study, and 
to this end a few city school systems have recently pro- 
vided for sabbatical leaves of absence for teachers, for pur- 
poses of travel or study. ^ Such leaves are common in col- 
leges and universities, where professors are entitled to one 
year in seven free from teaching for purposes of travel or 
study, the institution paying them part of their salaries 

1 A few cities, notably Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Pittsburg, have 
special funds from which grants may be made to meritorious teachers to 
enable them to travel or study. The Indianapolis fund, though small, has 
rendered a very important service in developing a professional spirit among 
the teachers. (See Blaich, L. R., " The Gregg Scholarships in Indianapolis "; 
in Elementary-School Teacher, vol. 12, pp. 461-62, June, 1912.) 

2 Boston, Cambridge, Brookline, Gloucester, and Newton, Massachu- 
setts, and New Rochelle and Rochester, New York, are examples of cities 
which have made a beginning in the matter. In Boston, Newton, and 
Rochester one year on half-pay after seven years of service is granted, for 
travel or study; in Cambridge, one-third pay after ten years of service, 
(See article by Belcher, K. F., in Educational Review, vol. 45, pp. 471-84, 
May, 1913.) 

t 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 237 

while absent, usually one half. Such leaves, without pay, 
are also usually granted to professors at any time. 

These leaves of absence are granted by the colleges or 
universities on the theory that their gain from the plan, due 
to the increased efficiency of the service rendered after the 
professor's return, is worth more than the extra cost. If the 
theory that a teacher's efficiency reaches a point of dimin- 
ishing returns after a certain number of years of service is 
sound, and there is much reason to think that it is, the same 
principle of leaves applied to public-school teachers ought 
to prove of much value to the schools. 

In any case, additional professional study along lines 
tending to increase classroom efficiency should be stimu- 
lated, and leaves of absence for full years should be granted 
to teachers, on the recommendation of the superintendent 
of schools. The common practice of boards of education of 
refusing to grant leaves of absence to teachers for further 
study has no educational foundation upon which to rest, 
and is based solely on the job-conception of the position of 
teacher in the schools. 

In the next chapter the value of such additional study in 
estimating salary rewards will be considered.^ 

^. The supervision of teachers. 
Deficient supervision. In some of our cities, it must be 
admitted, no problems involving the continuous education 
of the teaching corps, nicety of educational adjustment, nor 
a high degree of efficiency in the art of instruction, come 
in to disturb the even tenor of the educational administra- 
tion. A self-satisfied and relatively stationary city of 10,000 

^ This topic is touched on but briefly here. In another book in this 
series. The Administration of a School, the supervisory work of a school 
principal, which in a large city does not differ materially from that of a 
superintendent of schools in a small city, will be treated in some detail 
and the principles underiying helpful supervision will be set forth. 



238 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADIMINISTRATION 

to 30,000 inhabitants, which has long been flattered by the 
assurance that "its schools are among the best in the land," 
is very likely to produce such a condition of affairs. The 
school board, assisted more or less by the superintendent of 
schools, employs the teachers and the principals and assigns 
them to their positions, and each teacher and each school 
sinks or swims according to its own ability. New and un- 
trained teachers are turned over to the principal of the 
school to develop, while normal-school graduates are re- 
garded as a finished product. The high school is left almost 
entirely to its principal, to manage as he sees fit. The super- 
intendent is a business r.uperintendent, a building super- 
intendent, or an office man, who contrives to keep busy on 
easy work. He pays little attention to educational prob- 
lems, and when he visits teachers his visits are for social 
purposes rather than for real supervisory service. Down to 
about a certain level teachers or principals can drop without 
being questioned, if they are able to keep out of trouble 
and are loyal to authority; below that level, or if trouble- 
some, they are dropped, usually without much or any 
warning. 

The school system in a way slides along; home girls are 
awarded the places; teachers who know that things are 
not what they should be either leave or learn to say nothing; 
there is no attempt to educate the public on school matters; 
private and parochial schools flourish; the school board is 
satisfied; and the taxpayers make no complaint. Such a 
condition serves only to show how few people there are in 
such communities who possess any educational standards by 
which they can say that the school system is not what it 
ought to be. For a time, and often for a long time, a super- 
intendent can carry out such a bluff, but sooner or later he 
ought and must give way to some one who can introduce 
a real educational administration, and who can raise the 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 239 

schools, and along with the schools the community con- 
ception of education, from mediocrity or less to a plane of 
real efficiency. 

Supervision of the wrong type. A somewhat higher type 
of supervisory oversight, but one thoroughly wrong in prin- 
ciple and disastrous in its results, is one in which the super- 
intendent is interested and efficient, but along wrong lines 
of action. The result is the production of a school system in 
which rigid uniformity is prescribed and enforced for all. 
The usual characteristics of such a supervisory system are 
a rigid and uniform course of study, usually based on definite 
page requirements in certain textbooks, an attempt to force 
all pupils through an identical course of instruction, uniform 
regulations as to methods of instruction and programs for 
work, and periodical general examinations of all classes, on 
questions based on the course of study and made out at the 
central office. The supervision then consists largely of in- 
spection to see that the teachers are following instructions, 
and are making proper progress; while the examination and 
tabulation of the results of the examinations, and the chart- 
ing of schools and teachers as to efficiency based on the 
results of such periodical tests, come in as an important part 
of the supervisory service. 

Teachers under such a system become teachers of facts 
and textbooks rather than of children, while the ability to 
discipline and to cram in information sufficiently well to 
make it stick until the examination period is over, together 
come to constitute the chief essentials of the science of 
education demanded of the teachers. A teaching force, 
under such a system of so-called supervision, naturally 
ceases to grow professionally or to be professionally inter- 
ested in the problems of their work. Under such a system 
of supervision a superintendent rules by reason of the weight 
of his authority and the general lack of professional stand- 



240 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

ards on the part of his teachers and principals, rather than 
because of the support and backing which comes to him 
from the teaching corps due to the helpfulness extended to 
them by intelligent supervision. 

Need for helpful supervision. If the schools in any city 
are to render good service, there must be plenty of close, 
personal, and helpful supervision of the instructing corps. 
A superintendent of schools in a small city, and a super- 
visory corps in a large city, in addition to providing properly 
for the growth and development of the teachers in the 
school system by continuing their training, as has been 
indicated in the first part of this chapter, must also spend 
much time in helping them to improve themselves in the 
art of teaching. Composed, as the teaching forces in our 
American cities are, of so many women teachers who possess 
but the required minimum of professional training and who 
expect or hope to remain in the service but a short time, 
the supervision of instruction attains with us an importance 
which it does not have in countries where teaching repre- 
sents more of a life-career. Even the reasonably well- 
trained normal-school graduate requires much help at first 
to adjust herself properly to the work of a city school sys- 
tem, and to enable her, in the course of four or five years, 
to reach a maximum of eflficiency with a minimum of mis- 
takes and struggle. The teacher with no professional train- 
ing naturally needs much more personal attention. 

Piirpose of all supervision. The purpose of all super- 
vision should be constructive. The supervisor who goes 
about as an inspector, a detective, or a judge, will not 
render services of much value. He will never see the best 
work of any teacher, and the more the teacher is in need 
of assistance the poorer the quality of the work she will do 
beneath his critical eye. Neither is the dictator of much 
real assistance to teachers. Helpful leadership, rather than 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 241 

dictation or criticism, is what teachers need. Mere criticism 
is deadening in its effect. Encouragement, suggestion, and 
practical demonstrations, with criticism only to serve as a 
basis for constructive help, should represent the super- 
visor's chief efforts.^ Kindliness, consideration, and helpful- 
ness are necessary to win the confidence of teachers, and 
unless teachers can feel that the supervisor is a friend inter- 
ested in their success, instead of a critical representative of 
the board or of the central office, helpful relations are not 
likely to be established between them. 

The purpose of supervision, too, is to establish a unity of 
effort throughout the schools, so that the part of each one 
in the education of children may be as effective as possible. 
Unity, however, does not mean uniformity, though this 
mistaken conception is commonly held. The object in all 
attempts to unify processes and procedure is to mitigate 
the evils of the graded system of instruction. This can best 
be done by securing a unity of purpose all along the line. 
Unity of purpose and cooperation in plan are what is de- 
sired. Sometimes, ofttimes, this unity calls for cooperation 
in carrying forward the ordinary daily work of the school — 
sometimes it centers about the educational policy which is 
to pervade the system. 

Means to this end. The supervisor must first of all try to 
establish good personal relations with the supervised. This 
will be done more easily if criticism is withheld at first, 
with a view to drawing out the teacher's best, which can 

* Mere criticism is easy and cheap, and represents a low order of scien- 
tific ability. There are many people in this world, of reasonably good train- 
ing, too, who are essentially destructive critics. They cen see what is the 
matter, but they cannot ofiFer any constructive plan. Such people may 
have their place in the world, but it is not in school supervision. Con- 
structive criticism represents a much higher order of ability and is harder 
to give, but constructive criticism is the only kind that 'S of much value 
in school supervision. / 



Ut ^ U^ 



242 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

then be commended. The teacher can thus be made to feel 
that she has the supervisor's sympathetic cooperation in 
the work she is trying to do. When things seem to go wrong 
or to be wrong, personal help to the teacher in her lesson 
planning, questioning, study assignments, seat work, time 
economies, and individual cases will do much to add to her 
confidence in the supervision. If the teaching needs im- 
provement, suggestions as to better ways or methods should 
be given, rather than criticism of what was done; while for 
the supervisor to take the class and teach it, Tvdth the 
teacher as observer and critic, will often prove a very 
valuable means of rendering aid. 

To tell a teacher that her work is unsatisfactory, because 
the results are unsatisfactory, is easy and cheap. Almost 
any person with a little teaching experience could become 
that kind of a supervisor. Under such a line of attack the 
schools would soon be relieved of a great many promising 
young people. Such work merely exchanges one untrained 
person for another untrained person, while a feeling as to 
the injustice of such supervision pervades the teaching force. 
Helpful and friendly relationships can never be established 
by such a type of supervisory service. After all, while larger 
knowledge is important and necessary to the supervisor in 
dealing with immature or untrained teachers, it is kindly, 
sympathetic human nature, rather than larger knowledge, 
which will prove to be the essential requisite. A cold, aus- 
tere, unsympathetic supervisor, whose chief stock in trade 
is criticism, whatever his knowledge, will never succeed in 
obtaining good results in guiding and helping teachers. 
Such personalities have no real place in a supervisory corps. 

Distribution of time and effort. A supervisor, be he su- 
perintendent or assistant, should learn his system or group 
so as to supervise most economically and most helpfully. 
Unless he is a piece of mechanism, a supervisor will not 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 243 

distribute his time equally among all of his schools or all 
of his teachers. Some need more help than others; others 
need in large part to be let alone. To some teachers a super- 
visor goes to give help; to many for a friendly greeting or 
a word of encouragement; and to a few to obtain standards 
as to accomplishment and inspiration. The weak teacher 
he needs to help, and to strengthen by suggestion or ex- 
ample. Many capable teachers he needs to keep profes- 
sionally alive by a form of criticism which consists of sug- 
gesting possibilities of further achievement of which the 
teacher had not been aware. The especially capable teacher 
often strengthens the supervisor. 

What is true as to the superintendent and the assistant 
superintendent is equally true of the special supervisor 
and the school principal. Each should be allowed some 
liberty in choosing how and where to work. To work by 
order and by the calendar among teachers, without regard 
to their varying degrees of efficiency, is not working in the 
most effective manner, and is not the best use of a super- 
visor's time. To find and to improve the weak spots in the 
system or the school ought to be an important purpose of 
a supervisor. 

Demonstration teaching. An important means in the im- 
provement of teachers is directed visitation and demonstra- 
tion lessons. New teachers or teachers in need of help can 
be sent, or, better still, taken by the supervisor to visit 
the class work of certain teachers who have been selected 
because of their proficiency in certain types of instruction. 
After seeing certain lessons a conference can be held, with 
the teacher visited as the leader, and the how and why of 
the lesson examined and explained. A few days of such 
visitation, from time to time, by teachers in small groups 
and with definite purposes in mind, with the resulting con- 
ferences, will do much to show new or weak teachers ways 



244 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

of securing results which will materially improve the quality 
of their instruction. 

In some cities a few specially capable teachers have been 
selected and designated as training-teachers, paid a little ex- 
tra for the service, and charged with helping teachers along 
certain lines of work. After a visit to a teacher, the latter 
may return the visit to see the training-teacher at work 
in her own schoolroom. A good superintendent, with a 
primary supervisor, good school principals, and a number of 
such training-teachers, can supervise quite a large teaching 
corps. Such supervision and assistance often seems more 
helpful to teachers than that given by regular supervisors, 
perhaps largely because it comes from one nearer to them 
in the service, and from one engaged in the daily practicfc 
of what she is trying to supervise. 

Placing for effective work. Still another important 
means of extending helpful supervision consists in the 
proper placing of teachers, so that the maximum personal ef- 
ficiency may be obtained from each teacher. Anything less 
is not getting maximum returns for the money expended, 
and is fair neither to the taxpayer nor to the teacher con- 
cerned. The control of the placing and transfer of teachers 
should be wholly in the hands of the superintendent. No 
board of education or committee of the board has the 
technical knowledge or is close enough to the problem to 
be able to handle such situations with any degree of skill. 
Teacher A, now in a sixth-grade room, will do better in 
primary work; teacher B, now in third grade, seems better 
adapted to teaching the adolescent and is tried in the 
eighth grade; teacher C lacks the scholarship for the upper 
grades, but has the large personal sympathy and ability to 
take pains needed for lower grade work; teacher D is prop- 
erly located as to position, but needs a less trying class 
until she gets better command of her work and more self 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 245 

confidence. So it goes throughout the teaching force. The 
supervisory study of every teacher should involve proper 
placing, as well as the development of teaching technique. 
The preceding paragraphs sketch very briefly something 
of the work of the superintendent as supervisor, referred 
to in Chapter XI. The service is important and well repays 
effort, though economy demands, as a school system grows, 
that the superintendent spend his larger efforts in training 
his assistants, supervisors, and school principals to render a 
satisfactory grade of supervisory service. A professional 
teaching force, satisfied that the superintendent and his 
assistants are making an earnest effort to help them to 
succeed in their work, forms a strong bulwark for a super- 
intendent in times of popular agitation or political trouble. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Why is it desirable that new teachers should rank higher in ability 
than the average of a teaching force? 

2. Would it be desirable to require home girls, who have been graduated 
from a normal school or university, to obtain some experience else- 
where before entering the home schools, or not? 

3. What would be some of the serious defects and limitations of a train- 
ing-school for teachers in a city of 100,000 population or less? 

4. Why does the training which sufficed to produce a satisfactory teacher 
in 1890 or 1900 fail to produce a satisfactory teacher for 1915? 

5. The Report of the Commission to study the school system of Balti- 
more (p. 55) showed that the length of service of the teaching force 
at the time (1911) was as follows: — 

Entered service of the city prior to 1860 5 

Entered service of the city between 1860 and 1869 52 

Entered service of the city between 1870 and 1879 137 

Entered service of the city between 1880 and 1889 292 

Entered service of the city between 1890 and 1899 535 

Entered service of the city between 1900 and 1905 329 

Entered service of the city between 1905 and 1911 438 

1788 
Point out the need for further training of such a teaching force, and 
the effect on the instructing corps of a lack of it. 

6. What reason can you see for teachers reaching a somewhat stationary 
plane after seven or eight years of teaching service? 



346 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

7. What type of subjects could be taken up advantageously in a general 
meeting of 

(a) Primary teachers? 

(b) Seventh- and eighth-grade teachers? 

(c) High-school teachers? 

(d) Elementary-school principals? 

8. Contrast, in influence on the work of the schools, academic study while 
teaching, and study in smumer sessions or on leave of absence at 
regular sessions of normal schools or colleges. 

9. What reason can you see for the common statement that it takes 
four or five years to make a good teacher out of even a normal-school 
graduate? 

10. Can you see any reason why a board of education should refuse a 
leave of absence to a teaches who \Ndshes to use it for purposes of 
study? 

11. Do you think that sabbatical leaves for teachers, on half pay, would 
be a good thing for the schools? Would the results compensate the 
schools proportionally to the extra cost for such leaves? 

12. Why is a self-satisfied and relatively stationary city more likely to 
have a poor supervisory organization than a rapidly growing one? 

13. Is it easier to succeed in a city having a supervisory organization 
based on uniform courses, rigid requirements, and general examina- 
tions, than in one having a flexible and highly efficient organization? 
Why? 

14. Give some types of — 

(a) Helpful supervision. 

(b) Negative supervision. 

(c) Destructive supervision. 

15. What do you understand by the statement that " the purpose of super- 
vision is to establish unity of effort throughout the school system"? 

16. How could you make your classroom supervision contribute to the 
training of teachers in service? 

17. Would a rule of a school board requiring all principals to teach some 
particular class one period each day be a desirable rule? Why? 

18. Why is the fining of teachers or principals for violations of rules and 
regulations an undesirable practice? 

19. Is the rule that when a woman marries her position is automatically 
vacated a desirable rule? Why? 

20. Is the rule that teachers must reside in the city where they teach a 
legitimate requirement? Why? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Ascertain the exact nature of the training for teaching given in the 
city training-schools of three typical cities of different size, and the 
character of the teaching force and teaching equipment of each. 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 247 

2. Calculate the cost for maintaining a city training-school in a city of 
50,000 inhabitants: — 

(a) On the usual basis of maintenance. 

(6) On a proper basis of maintenance. 
How much would this increase yearly salaries, if spent in this manner 
instead? 

3. Outline a plan for a year's work with school principals, directed toward 
the improvement of some phase of the educational service. 

4. Compile a list of books or reports to be read by teachers and princi- 
pals, and discussed in some of the teachers' meetings, as follows : — 

(a) Two books for teachers in the first three grades. 

(b) Two books for teachers in grades four to six. 

(c) Two books for teachers in the intermediate-school (grades 7 
to 9 inclusive). 

(d) One book for all teachers in high schools. 

(e) Five books for principals in elementary schools. 

State your reason for including each book, and also how you would 
direct the reading and handle the discussion of it. 

5. Outline a plan for your first general teachers' meeting, to be held at 
the beginning of the school year. 

6. Formulate certain standards for judging the efficiency of classroom 
instruction. 

7. Look up and report on the administration and results derived from 
funds, used to help teachers in service to secure better training: — 

(a) The Gregg bequest and other funds in Indianapolis. 
(6) The Schmidlapp fund in Cincinnati. 

(c) The $250,000 fund in Pittsburg. 

(d) Any other similar funds of which you may know. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Allen, J. G. "The Supervisory Work of Principals"; in School Review, voL 
I, pp. 291-96. (May, 1893.) 

A good article on the principal as supervisor. 

Arnold, Sarah L. "The Duties and Privileges of a Supervisor"; in Proceed- 
ings of National Education Association, 1898, pp. 228-36. 
Good on how to extend helpful service to teachers. 

Ayres, L. P. The Public Schools of Springfield, Illinois. 

Chapter VI, on the teaching force, describes the results arising from the mainte- 
nance of a city training-school. 

Belcher, K. F. "The Sabbatical Year for the Public School Teacher"; in 

Educational Review, vol. 45, pp. 471-84. (May, 1913.) 

A good presentation of the plans, experience, and cost in the seven cities at that 
time having such plans. 

Brooks, Sarah L. "Supervision as viewed by the Supervised"; in Proceed' 



248 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

ings of National Education Associaiion, 1897, pp. 225-33; good general 
discussion of, pp. 233-38. 

Deals with details and relationships. 

Butte, Montana. Report of a Survey of the Public School System. (1914.) 

Chapter II, dealing with the quality of instruction, and Chapter V, on the super- 
vision of instruction, contain good statements as to the purpose of supervision and 
the proper relations of supervisor and teachers. 

Dutton, S. T., and Sneddon, D. S. The Administration of Public Education 
in the United States. 

Parts 1 and 2 of Chapter XVI deal with teachers' institutes, meetings, and reading 
circles, presenting many facts relating to such activities. 

Gordy, W. F. "The Local Training-School as an Agency for the Training 
of Teachers"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1906, 
pp. 124-26. 

Advantages and disadvantages. Discussion by seven superintendents. Nine reasons 
why Utica abandoned its training-school. 

Crreenwood, J. M. "How to judge a School"; in Educational Review, vol. 
17, pp. 324-45. (April, 1899.) 
An excellent article on helpful supervision and how to give it. 

Harris, Ada V. S. " Influence of the Supervisor " ; in Proceedings of National 
Education Association, 1906, pp. 117-21. 

A very sensible article on the sui)ervisor, the art of being helpful, and on teachers' 

meetings. 

Harvey, L. D. "Two Opportunities for Improvement in the Administra- 
tion of Grade-School Systems"; in Proceedings of National Education 
Association, 1900, pp. 203-10. 

Deals with the supervision of instruction as it relates to the course of study, and 
examinations as tests. 

Jenkins, Frances. "Adjusting the Normal-School Graduate to the City 
System"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, pp. 

448-52. 

A very good description of certain types of training for teachers in service. 

Kendall, C.N. " The Management of Special Departments " ; in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1904, pp. 271-76. 

A good article on special supervisors, and their place in the supervisory work. 
Manny, F. A. City Training-Schools for Teachers. 165 pp. Bulletin no. 47, 
1914, U.S. Bureau of Education. 

An important report describing teachers' training-schools in the larger cities, their 
services and defects, training of teachers in ser\nce, training classes in smaller cities, 
and the general problem of training teachers for city service vs. attracting teachers 
from the outside. 

Maxwell, Wm. H. "The Duties of Principals"; in his .4 Quarter-Century of 
Public School Development, pp. 16-24. 
A good study of the work of a school principal. 



TRAINING AND SUPERVISION 249 

Portland, Oregon. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. (1913.) 
441 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, 1915. 

Chapter III, on the system of supervision, and Chapter VIII, describing the 
system of instruction found, describe a wrong type of supervisory effort. 

RejTiolds, Alice E. *'The Assistant to the Superintendent; his Functions 
and Methods of Work"; in Proceedings of National Education Associa- 
Hon, 1904, pp. 264-71. 
A very good article. 

Ruediger, C. R. Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service. 
157 pp. Bulletin no. 3. 1911, U.S. Bureau of Education. 
A valuable document, covering all of the different means employed. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of a Survey of the School System. 3i24 pp. 
1915. 

Chapter V, on the system of supervision, describes the means by which a poorly- 
paid and largely locally-selected body of teachers have been developed into a fairly 
satisfactory teaching corps. 

Tietrick, R. B. "How secure More Effective Supervision?" in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1914, pp. 286-88. 
A good general statement as to means and ends. 

Updegraff, H. "The Improvement of Teachers in Service in City Schools "; 
in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1911, pp. 433-41; 
discussion, pp. 441-45. 

A good paper on the different means and incentives used in the improvement of 
teachers in service. 

Warriner, E. C. "Unity gained from School Supervision"; in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1911, pp. 311-16. 
Good on the work of supervising instruction. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE TEACHING CORPS 

III. Pay and Promotion 

Low standards and compensation. The present low com- 
pensation for the work of teaching, not only in our cities 
but in town and rural schools as well, is largely a result of 
the low standards for entering the work and the job-concep- 
tion of teaching which have so long prevailed. The great 
mass of the public has no real conception as to what proper 
training for and adaptability to the work of teaching mean, 
and does not take particularly kindly to proposals to raise 
the requirements for admission to the work. The public 
generally fears that higher standards may mean higher 
taxes for schools, and desires to keep teaching on as nearly 
a competitive basis as is possible. Teachers also often feel 
so sympathetic for some poor friend who wants to teach and 
who may be cut out by higher standards, or are so fearful 
that such may mean closer supervision and more work for 
them, that they, too, are quite willing to let conditions 
remain about as they are. 

To our superintendents of schools, backed by a few of the 
more progressive teachers, has fallen almost the entire 
burden of pushing up the requirements for entering on the 
work of instructing in the schools. Practically all attempts 
to demand larger academic and professional preparation 
for preliminary certification, or increased knowledge and 
efficiency for higher-grade certificates and for the retention 
of or advance in positions, have been most bitterly opposed 



» 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 251 

by teachers and would-be teachers and their friends among 
the general public. 

A stiff legislative fight can always be provoked by a pro- 
posal materially to increase the standards for the certifica- 
tion of teachers throughout a State. The sympathy of the 
public goes out largely to "the poor teacher," instead of to 
the children under the poor teacher. The legislation fails, 
or is considerably modified in form, and the poor teacher 
retains her position, while more of her type are certificated 
to compete for positions, drive the best teachers out of the 
work, and keep down the compensation and the public esti- 
mation of all. The result is seen in the low standards for 
certification prevailing in practically all of our States; the 
general absence of any graded system of certification, based 
on increased knowledge and professional success; and the 
necessity many of our cities still feel themselves under to 
quarantine against the pressure for positions, from the 
poorer teachers of the State, by retaining their own certifi- 
cating machinery.^ 

Adequate pay necessary. Higher pay and higher stan- 
dards are practically inseparable, and higher pay must, in 
most cases, precede or accompany an increase in require- 
ments. In many of our American cities the increase in 
preparation demanded, and the increase in the cost of liv- 
ing, have together outrun the increases in pay. The first 
step, in many communities, to retain even present stan- 
dards of preparation and efficiency, to say nothing of any 
increase in standards, lies in the direction of a general in- 
crease in salary for all teachers. After this has been done, 

* The certification of teachers ought to be a state function, with general 
recognition of certificates throughout the State, and interstate recognition 
for those holding certificates of the higher grades. This involves a better 
system of certification than most of our States now have, with the higher 
grades of certificates based on adequate evidence of increased preparation 
and professional skill. 



252 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

additional grants, based on increased professional prepa- 
ration and teaching efficiency, can be talked of. If good 
teachers are to be obtained to fill vacancies, and those now 
in the force are to continue to render good service, all must 
be paid enough to enable them to live as persons of culture 
and refinement should. 

An examination of the recently published Report on 
Teachers' Salaries and Salary Schedules of the Commission 
on the Emergency in Education of the National Education 
Association 1 reveals, despite recent salary advances, a rather 
pitiful situation in many of our American cities. From $300 
to $1200 a year for elementary-school teachers, with the 
median at $886; $550 to $1500, for intermediate-school 
teachers, with the median at $1047; and from $600 to $2000 
for secondary-school teachers, with the median at $1242, 
were the common ranges in cities of from 25,000 to 50,000 
inhabitants, as late as 1919. While there have been a num- 
ber of small increases since 1919, there have also been some 
decreases, with the result that the levels of to-day probably 
do not stand much above the medians for 1919. Such sal- 
aries are shamefully low, compared with the wages paid in 
trades, business, private service, and other city offices and 
work. It is difficult to insist on adequate standards on such 
a pay basis. 

What such pay is worth. How low such salaries are can 
perhaps be understood better by turning such yearly pay 
into a daily-wage table. There are twelve months and three 
hundred and thirteen working days in a year, for which 
almost all other forms of service are paid. That the teacher 
works only ten months and two hundred days a year is, in 
part, necessitated by the nerve-trying character of teaching, 

* Teachers^ Salaries and Salary Schedules in the United States in 1918-19, 
169 pp. National Education Association, Bulletin No. 6, Commission Se- 
ries. Washington, 1919. 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 253 

and in part by the requirements of children and parents. 
The teacher must live the whole year round. Such a wage 
standard gives the following results per working day: — 



$300 a 


year 


equals 


$ .96 


$1200 a 


year 


equals $3.84 


400 




« 


1.27 


1300 




4.15 


500 




« 


1.59 


1400 




4.46 


600 




c« 


1.92 


1500 




4.79 


700 




« 


2.23 


1600 




5.12 


800 




l< 


2.56 


1700 




'* 5.43 


900 




(« 


2.87 


1800 




5.74 


1000 




< 


3.18 


1900 




6.05 


1100 




« 


3.51 


2000 


** 6.36 



Carpenters, machinists, plumbers, lathers, plasterers, 
bakers, telegraph operators, wiremen, structural iron work- 
ers, blacksmiths, printers, bricklayers, hod-carriers, en- 
ginemen, trainmen, motormen, clerks in city offices^ 
policemen, firemen, chauffeurs, dressmakers, milliners, 
and nurses are paid better than are teachers, at the an- 
nual salaries usually paid, though the education and pro- 
fessional preparation required for such services, except 
in the case of nurses, is not comparable with that required 
of teachers. No marked advance in raising the standards 
for entering the work, or in paying teachers on the basis 
of efficiency, is possible under such salary schedules. 

Reasonable salary demands. When the American bill for 
education is compared with the bill for tobacco, drink, 
candy and soda-water, or amusements, and the importance 
of education in unifying our people and in saving and ad- 
vancing the best interests of the race are remembered, such 
salaries as are now paid elementary-, intermediate-, and 
secondary-school teachers in many of our cities — in practi- 
cally all of the cities of some of our States — are little less 
than disgraceful. Considering the importance of the serv- 
ice and the cost of training and living, a beginning salary 



254 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



of $900 to $1000, and increasing automatically up to at 
least $1200 for elementary-school teachers; a beginning sal- 
ary of $1000 to $1200, and increasing automatically up to 
$1400 to $1500 for intermediate-school teachers; and a begin- 
ning salary of $1200 to $1400 and increasing automatically 
up to $1800 to $2000 for secondary-school teachers, is cer- 



SALARY IN HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 1-115 16 W 18 19 20 






Machinista 

Lathers 

Bricklayers 

Inside wiremen 

Workers, structural iron 

Blacksmiths 

Machine tenders (printing) 

Compositors (English) 

Glaziers 

Plumbers 

Carpentera 

Hodcarriers 

Bakers 

High School Teachers 

Intermediate Teachers 

Elementary Teachers 



Fig. 16. TEACHERS' SALARIES AND PAY IN THE TRADES COMPARED 

(From Evenden's Teachers' Salaries and Salary Schedules, p 110.) 

Teachers' Salaries an average of salaries paid in 1918-19 to teachers in cities of the North 
Central Division of States; wages of workmen an average of the union scale, same year, foi 
Chicago and Cleveland. 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 255 

tainly not an unreasonable amount for any American city 
to pay. Many cities should pay more; some much more. 

Automatic increases. The usual city salary schedule pro- 
vides for some such annual increments, advancing slowly 
until the maximum salary is reached, though both the 
minimum and the maximum are in most cases below the 
figures given above. 

Keeping in mind the principle that beginning teachers 
tend to improve in efficiency for a period of years and then 
to reach a plane of little additional progress, it can be seen 
that the plan of making a series of small salary increases, 
based on years in the service, has, for a time, much merit. 
The beginning salary for beginning teachers should not be 
too large, but still large enough to attract to teaching the 
kind of persons desired, and then should increase automati- 
cally, if the teacher is retained, up to a certain maximum 
common for all teachers in that branch of the educational 
service. This maximum salary should represent a respec- 
table living wage, and should be reached about the time the 
plane of maximum efficiency without additional study is 
reached. Increases in salary beyond this common maximum 
should also be possible, but such increases should be de- 
pendent upon increased professional training and demon- 
strated efficiency in the service. 

Rewards for growth and efficient service. Just how to 
pay to elementary-school teachers such additional grants 
for increased professional usefulness has been and still is 
one of our most difficult administrative problems. So far 
as secondary-school teachers are concerned it has been 
relatively easy, and has been accepted as proper and just 
by them. By the creation of such positions as heads of 
departments, sub-heads, and teachers, — or heads of de- 
partments, instructors, and assistants, — a graded salary 
schedule can be worked out which can be used, in combi- 



256 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



nation with promotions, to reward efficient teachers and to 
hold in check those who are least deserving. In the case of 
elementary-school teachers, however, there has been a 
marked tendency for them, as a class, to object to any 
discriminations between teachers on any basis involving the 
question of the personal efficiency of individuals. In some 
cities which have introduced such a plan it has produced 
discontent; and in some cases a tendency to unionize, to 
antagonize the administration, and to ostracize those 
teachers who take the efficiency tests has developed. 

That all teachers who have been at work long enough to 
be regarded as experienced teachers are of equal, or even of 





^^''' 


"--^^'--^^*^ 










Jr*% ^^^ 








/ 


/ \ /X 


^v 






/ 
/ 


r / ^ 1 


^ 


. 


J 


i 


/ \ 


I 


\ 


f 
t 


/ 


/ \ 


\ 


\ 





/ 


/ \ 


\ 







/ 


/ \ 


\ 


\ 





/ 


/ \ 


\ 




/ 


/ ^ 




\ \ 


\ 


/ 


y/^ y 




\ \ 


\ 


* ^^ 








^^^ ^v. 












^y ^yf^'^\^^ 






^*- 


— -TT'^^s^^S^ 


Poor 


Fair 


Average 


Good 


Superior 




. .__ Supervision weak; salaries low 








Supervision good; salaries good 



FiQ. 17. TENDENCIES IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF TEACHERS UNDER 
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SUPERVISION AND DIFFERENT SALARY 
SCHEDULES 

approximately equal ability, every executive officer knows 
is not the case.^ A uniform salary schedule assumes that all 
of equal rank and experience are approximately of equal 
worth, — a condition that is never found to exist. The 



^ For ten good descriptions of individual teachers, with salaries paid 
each, see the Report of the Surtey of the Public Schools of Portland, pp. 79-80, 



i 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 257 

great bulk of the teachers in any city, where good super- 
vision has been the rule and professional preparation and 
growth have been emphasized, are good average teachers. 
A few will be more or less weak, and a few will be quite 
superior. 

Stimulating industry and individual improvement. How 
many will be of the class known as superior will depend 
greatly on the incentives to become superior teachers which 
the salary schedule and the administration of the system 
provide. To stimulate industry on the part of teachers, 
to encourage individual improvement, and to reward ex- 
ceptional merit, should be characteristics of a good salary 
schedule as well as of a good system of school supervision. 
Take away incentives to growth and rewards for efficient 
service, and a teaching force tends to decline rapidly in effi- 
ciency. 

The plans which have been tried to prevent such a decline, 
and to apportion rewards on the basis of merit, group them- 
selves around: (1) Attaching different salaries to positions, 
and promoting from the lower-paid to the higher-paid; 
(2) establishment of grades in the teaching service, with a 
different salary schedule for each; (3) additional salary 
grants for evidences of increased scholarship or professional 
preparation, often involving the passing of some form of 
promotional examination; (4) grading teachers on the basis 
of estimated efficiency, usually using some rather elaborate 
form or scale; and (5) salaries based primarily on training 
and service. We shall consider each of these in order. 

jf. Graded salaries based on tenure or position. 

In its simplest form this type of salary schedule is based 
on service only, and is well-illustrated by the following very 
simple salary schedule, adopted in 1919 by a small western 
city. 



25S 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION 



Years of teaching experience 


Anniud 
increment 


Fixed 
yearly 
salary 




Total 


Must have been 
in the city 
employing 




1 
2 


z 


$ 50 


$1100 
1150 




3 


— 


110 


1260 




4 


1 


60 


1320 




5 


2 


80 


1400 




6 


3 


100 


1500 





This type of salary schedule is also frequently combined 
with dijfferent rates of pay for the different grades, and often 
with different lengths of time for which the annual incre- 
ments are given and hence different maximum levels. It is 
usual, also, to have a different salary schedule for the high- 
school teachers. This is illustrated quite well by the follow- 
ing salary schedule, recently adopted by one of our medium- 
sized eastern cities : — 



Teaching position 


Beginning 
salary 


Yearly 
increase 


Years to reach 
maximum 


Maximum 
for position 


Grades 1 and 2 

Kindergarten & gr. 3. . 
Grades 4 to 6 


$800 
750 
800 
850 
900 

1000 


$50 
50 
50 
60 
75 

100 


4 

5 
6 
6 
6 
5 


$1000 
1000 
1100 


Grade 7 


1210 


Grade 8 


1350 


High School 


1500 







Another of our medium-sized cities illustrates the same 
idea, except that all teachers here start at the same minimum 
salary and advance at the same rate, but in the higher grades 
the yearly additions keep up for a longer time, and these 
grades, in consequence, carry a higher maximum salary. The 
following salary schedule for an eastern city illustrates this 
plan: — 



/ 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 



259 



Teaching position 


Beginning 
salary 


Yearly 
increase 


Years to reach 
maximum 


Maximum 
for position 


Grades 1 and 2 

Grades 3 and 4 

Grades 5 and 6 

Grade 7 


$800 
800 
800 
800 
800 
800 


$40 
40 
40 
40 
40 
40 


7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

15 


$1080 
1120 
1160 
1200 


Grade 8 . . 


1240 


High School 


1400 







Defects of such schedules. The trouble with all such 
graded salary plans is that they are wholly artificial, they 
are not based on sound administrative principles, and they 
do not comply with the essential features of a good salary 
schedule, as stated on page 268. 

In part they are based on the old idea that "any one can 
teach little children," a conception entirely abandoned by 
progressive cities, and forbidden by law in some of our 
States.^ They also violate a fundamental principle of a good 
salary schedule, namely, that a salary schedule should be 
so arranged as to permit of the assignment of every teacher 
to that position or kind of work which he or she can best do, 
without having first to consider the salary attached to the 
position. As we shall point out, further on under (5), this 
is seldom possible to the full in our American cities, but it 
ought to be possible in each division of the school system, at 
least. 

There are only a few forms of salary grants based on po- 
sition, for elementary-school teachers, which are free from 
such objection. The designation of a few superior teachers 
as special training or demonstration teachers, for those in 
need of special assistance, as was indicated in Chapter XV; 

^ For example, the California School Code, Sec. 1687, provides: "In 
all schools having more than two teachers, beginners shall be taught by 
teachers who have had at least two years' experience, or be normal school 
graduates; and in cities such teachers shall rank, in point of salary, with 
those of the assistant teachers in the highest grade in the grammar schools." 



260 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

teachers of special classes, demanding more than ordinary 
classroom skill; and teachers in the upper grades, when a 
departmental plan of instruction is in use and extra and 
special preparation is required for the service, may with pro- 
priety be singled out for such extra salary grants. 

2. Salary grants hosed on grades in the service. 

Salary grants based on the establishment of grades in the 
teaching service may be divided into two classes : (a) Where 
advance from grade to grade is based on estimated class- 
room efficiency and the recommendation of the superintend- 
ent of schools; and (b) where teachers must present evi- 
dence of professional growth, by certain examinations, as a 
prerequisite to such promotion in salary. 

Promotions on recommendation. The simplest example 
of the first is found in the case of high-school teachers. The 
beginning teacher enters the work with the rank of assistant 
or teacher, is later promoted to the rank of instructor or sub- 
head of a department, and still later may be promoted to 
the rank and position of head of a department, each of which 
grades carries with it certain automatic salary increases. 

In one of our larger cities, which has an automatic salary 
schedule covering a long period of years, and applying to both 
elementary-school and secondary-school teachers, two halts 
are made in the automatic increases of each. These are so 
placed as to divide the period into three approximately equal 
parts, and at these halts increases in salaries do not proceed 
"unless and until the service of the teacher shall have been 
approved, after inspection and investigation, as fit and mer- 
itorious by a majority of the board of superintendents." 

It would be possible to work out a salary schedule for 
elementary-school teachers, patterned after that of second- 
ary-school teachers, and dividing elementary-school teach- 
ers into a number of ranks or classes, with promotion from 



. 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 



261 



one to the other on the specific recommendation of the 
superintendent, such based, in turn, on careful estimates 
as to growth and efficiency. Within each rank there would 
be automatic increases, but teachers might rest tempo- 
rarily or permanently at the maximum of any rank.^ The 
following will illustrate such a plan, eighteen years being 
required to reach the maximum salary: — 



Class 


Period of 


Beginning 


Yearly 


Years to 


Maximum saU 


appointTnent 


salary 


increase 


maximum 


ary jor class 


1. Probationary 












teachers 


Annual 


$900 


$50 


3 


$1000 


2. Three-year 












teachers 


3 years 


1050 


50 


3 


1150 


S. Five-year 












teachers 


5 years 


1200 


50 


5 


1400 


4, Permanent 












teachers 


Until 




(50 

\i5 


1^ 


(1600 
11800 




retired 


1450 



At the end of the period of appointment for classes two and three, teachers may be pro- 
moted, given a second appointment in the same class at the maximum salary of this class, or 
given notice of a desire on the part of the board of education to terminate the contract. 

For promotion from class two to class three, a year of study under direction will ordinarily be 
required, but such may be granted in special cases on the basis of superior merit. 

Class four reserved for teachers of superior merit only. 

Promotional Examinations. The second class of advances 
by grades requires the passing of some form of promotional 
examination, as a prerequisite to promotion from one grade 
to another or for eligibility to certain types of positions. 
There is no uniformity in procedure in this respect. This 
plan has been followed by a number of our larger cities, 
notably Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Kansas 
City, Lincoln, New York City, Paterson, Saginaw, Spring- 

* That is what takes place in every university . Some men are never pro- 
moted beyond the rank of assistant professor; many never beyond the 
grade of associate professor; though the more energetic and capable can 
usually count on reaching the grade and pay of professor by about the age 
of forty. 



262 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

field (Ohio), and Washington.^ The nature of the examina- 
tions has varied with the different cities, being more aca- 
demic in some and more strictly professional in others. In 
Baltimore, for example, where the promotional examina- 
tions were simple in nature and closely applicable to the 
work of instruction, the first examination was based on the 
use of English, and the second on a year's study of some 
special schoolroom problem.^ A number of the cities requir- 
ing promotional examinations accept summer-school or 
extension-class work as satisfying all or part of the exam- 
ination requirements. 

The promotional examination idea has been accepted 
heartily in some cities, while in others it has caused much 
bitter feeling. The plan, in so far as it gets teachers inter- 
ested in attending summer sessions or extension courses, or 
awakens an interest in the study of classroom problems and 
leads to reading and study, undoubtedly serves a good pur- 
pose. On the other hand, the plan, as sometimes used, is 
open to certain objections. Study during the time the 
schools are in session, if heavy in amount or unrelated to 
school work, may be done at the expense of efficient in- 
struction, and undoubtedly is so done in some cases. Again, 
percentages obtained in the written examinations do not 
necessarily bear any relation to actual or future efficiency 
in classroom instruction. In principle, though, the promo- 
tional examination is capable of limited application in the 
framing of a scheme for promoting teachers on a merit 

1 See Ruediger's Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service, 
pp. 117-37, for a description of the plans followed in each of these cities. 

2 Baltimore has often been cited as a place where promotional examina- 
tions failed, but the lack of any marked success there was doubtless due 
much more to the very low salaries paid teachers (minimum, $444; maxi- 
mum, $700) than to the promotional plan itself. Had there first been a 
flat raise of 25 to 30 per cent, and then promotional examinations instituted 
for further increases, it is probable that little opposition of consequence 
would have been made to the plan. 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 263 

basis. Its chief use is as one of a number of bases for esti- 
mating growth and professional eflSciency. 

3, Additional salary grants for study. 

This is a relatively simple and easy method for granting 
salary advances, though it is not extensively used alone. 
Under it a uniform salary schedule for all can be followed, 
and then additional salary grants can be made for evidence 
of additional approved study. ^ An example of this method 
of handling salary increases will be found in the suggestions 
made at the close of Chapter V of the Report of the Survey 
of the Public School System of Portland, Oregon. Summer 
schools, years of study in colleges and universities, and 
travel and study in Europe were all suggested there as bases 
for salary increases, beyond a common maximum. 

The chief objection to such a plan is that, under ordinary 
salary conditions, many of the most promising of the teach- 
ers do not feel that they can afford the expense involved in 
such study, and they of course receive no additional salary 
grants in consequence. The plan, while rewarding the more 
energetic, does not in itself bear any close relation to school- 
room efficiency. 

On the other hand, a small added grant for summer study 
is merely a little help toward paying the expenses incurred, 
whereas the teacher ought to be a better teacher for some 
time by reason of the change and the new intellectual ideas 
and contacts, and such grants can hardly be considered as 
other than a good investment for the school board. Similarly 
leaves of absence, especially Sabbatical leaves, ought to be 
encouraged by the school board, as a periodical leave for 

^ Rochester, for example, in 1913, provided that fifty dollars be added 
to the salary of the person who pursues courses in institutions outside of 
Rochester, and twenty-five dollars if in institutions within the city, when 
approved by the superintendent of schools. Baltimore also offered added 
salary for summer-school study. 



1 



264 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

travel and study is worth much as an impetus to further 
growth. Perhaps the plan does reward the more energetic 
and the more capable, and perhaps also these are the ones 
who ought most to be aided and encouraged with a view to 
retaining their services in the school system. 

Jf, Salary grants based on efficiency. 

This is the most important and at the same time the 
most difficult to carry out of all the diflPerent plans for pay- 
ing teachers somewhat in proportion to their growth and 
personal efficiency. It has been tried in a number of places, 
but not always with the most satisfactory results. In its 
essentials it consists of a carefully formed judgment by a 
supervisory officer — often the combined judgment of a 
number of supervisory officers — as to each teacher's effi- 
ciency for the work required by the schools, and on the 
basis of such report, usually filed in writing, salary in- 
creases are granted and promotions are made. In principle, 
this basis has been used by cities for a long time, but in its 
modified development the idea is relatively recent. 

Criticism of the plan. If the scoring is done carefully and 
with good judgment, and covers a sufficient number of 
points, it is likely to produce a very good estimate as to 
the relative efficiency of the teacher. The great trouble 
encountered is that the teacher who is marked low usually 
feels that she has been marked unfairly, and with some of 
the plans in use it is hard to prove that she is wrong. In the 
end it tends to fall back largely on the reliability of the 
personal judgment of some person or persons, and, in the 
present status of the supervision of instruction in our Ameri- 
can cities, this is its weak point. It is rather easy for teachers 
to claim, and with some degree of truth, that the principal 
was not competent, or that the assistant superintendent or 
the superintendent was not closely enough in touch with 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 265 

the work of the teacher to enable either of them to appre- 
ciate and evaluate the work which was being done. When 
boards of education accept the judgment of such officers, 
as they must almost of necessity do, a sense of injustice 
often remains which breeds discontent among a teaching 
force. It requires the use of a good form of close and capa- 
ble supervision, and helpful frankness in dealing with 
teachers, to secure good results from such a plan. 

Plan right in principle. On the other hand, the plan is 
strictly in accord with principles of educational efficiency 
and economy. It is notorious that in most of our cities some 
of the poorest teachers in the service are those drawing the 
largest salaries.^ The number of such may not be large, but 
this condition does exist almost everywhere. It is not uncom- 
mon for teachers, after some years of growth, or with the 
maximum salary attained, to settle down slowly into a sure 
and comfortable position, do their work in a more or less 
perfunctory manner, and make no further efforts toward 
any increase in personal efficiency. The result is that, with 
the rapid advance in both the theory and practice of educa- 
tion, they are gradually left behind. Such teachers are 
almost always surprised and indignant at any questioning 
of their efficiency, and are often leaders in efforts to prevent 
the introduction of efficiency estimates. To dismiss them, if 
they have been a long time in the service, is practically im- 
possible, and a salary schedule, based in part on estimated or 
calculated efficiency, is about the only way to reach them. 

Such a salary schedule has the double purpose of pre- 
venting the younger teachers from falling into such a condi- 
tion, and the continual stimulation of all teachers to efforts 
at personal improvement. The plan is in harmony with all 
principles underlying efficiency in the public service, and is 

^ See, for example, the ten teachers described in the Portland Report, 
previously cited* on page 256. 



266 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



CENERAL RATING 


=r 


-TTT 


1 1 1 1 1 n 


fnowof 


=T 


' 


QTuatTiKi or McatT 


?sr 


Pool 


MEDnm 


Cooo . 


Ex. 




1. Personal Equipment- 

1. General appearance 




















■ — 










K 


Cj 











1. Health 


















,.. 












>f 




rfH 






i. Voice 








X 




















n 


r3 


■" 


-^ 






4. Intelleclual capadty 
































... 




_J^ 




S. Initiative and seIJ-relianc« 


























?< 




cjio 




"i 






6. AdaptabiUty and rewniKefutoes*. 






























gjJQ 












































n 


Xo 




8. Industry 




































1^ 




9. Enthusiasm and optimism 
























X 








n 











lo. Integrity and sincerity 




































P<lo 




11. Self-control 






























X 




■ 













































IH 




































p^ 













14. Sense of Justice 






























X 


(5 


a 








n. Sociol and ProfessicHol Equipment- 




































B 


































r 







X 






3. Grasp of subject-matter 




























■ 




■ 


^ 


□ 01 




4. Vndeistanding of children 
























d 







X 












S. School and commuftity interest 
































m 

































A 




a 

















7. Interest in lives of pupils. 






























X 




a 


c 


> 




8. Co^>pe^ation and loyalty 










































9. Professional interest and grofrth 




































D 




10. Daily preparation 




































D 






Ji. Use of English 


































X 







^. School Management— 

*" 1. Care of light, heal, and ventUatlon. . . 




























p 




^ 


X 


C 


> 


































X 


c 









































X 


S 










4. DisdpUne (governing sldlD 




















I 






X 

















IV. Technique of Teaching— 


































rKl 


(f: 


> 




a. ikill in habit formation t 






























□ 





X 










































X 


c;<2 


.... 




4. Skill in teaching how to study 


































(^ 


c 


> 


































I] 












































D^ 




































a 




s 








































@ 


































X 







































X 















V. Results— 




























p 






g 








































M C 
































X 




Bi 
































^ 

















































^ 




n 


<5 






























1 






1 







Fig. 17x. A TEACHER-EFFICIENCY SCORE CARD 

[Reprinted from J. B. Seeira' Classroom Organization and Control, p. ^4. 

Superintendent D ; Principal X ; Supervisor O. 

This card shows the rating of a good teacher by three supervisory officers, and is in efifect a 
consolidated score. Another plan of using the card would be for each to indicate rating by 
dots, and then to connect the dots by lines, using different colored ink for each rating. 



I 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 267 

also in harmony with one of the fundamental principles 
which should control in the construction of a salary sched- 
ule, namely, that it should be such as to stimulate industry, 
encourage individual improvement, and reward exceptional 
merit. With the increasing demands of superintendents 
generally for more money for teachers' salaries, the public 
may be expected, in turn, to begin to demand that super- 
intendents and school boards produce evidence that the 
money which has been given them has been so used as to 
secure the most efficient service. 

Type plans for estimating efficiency. A number of cities 
have introduced some form of efficiency estimates, and have 
evolved schedule forms for' scoring the efficiency of their 
teachers. Maryland and Indiana require, such schedule 
forms to be filed yearly for all teachers in the State, such 
being known as the teacher's success grades, and the salaries 
paid must be based, in part, on the success grades granted.^ 

These forms are of two tj^es, the one for confidential use, 
and the other for open use with teachers. 

The Decatur, Illinois,^ form represents a good type of 
those intended for confidential markings, for the use of the 
superintendent of schools. With it an attempt has been 
made to estimate and evaluate teachers on : — 

1. Physical aspect of school. 6. Attitude toward pupils. 

2. Teacher's personality. 7. Discipline and control. 

3. Adaptability. 8. Teaching skill. 

4. Loyalty to school policies 9. Professional interests. 

5. Spirit of cooperation. 10. General impression. 

^ In the author's State and County Educational Reorganization, Appendix 
F, will be found a copy of the Indiana forms, together with a form devised 
by Professor E. C. Elliott, formerly of the University of Wisconsin. A 
number of other forms are now in use in different cities. 

^ See Ruediger's Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service, 
pp. 139-41. Ruediger also reproduces forms used in Kansas City, Missouri; 
Lincoln, Nebraska; and Washington, D.C. Salt Lake City, Utah, and 
Sacramento, California, have also evolved good forms. 



267a PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTIUTION 

Three different persons usually scored each teacher, and the 
markings were combined by the superintendent as a com- 
posite estimate. 

Professor Elliott, then at the University of Wisconsin, at- 
tempted, on the other hand, to devise a form by means of 
which teachers may measure their own efficiency, and over 
which supervisors may confer with teachers in an effort not 
only to scale them, but especially in an effort to help them. 
His form is not primarily intended as a score card for the 
use of inspectors. As to its use, he lays down the following 
general propositions:^ 

- 1. Does not the general betterment of educational achievement 
finally depend upon (a) the analysis of the complex teaching 
process into its essential, constituent elements; and (b) the 
recognition and possession by teachers of the qualities and 
capacities upon which these elements are grounded? 

2. Is it not possible to devise and to apply to the teaching proc- 
ess impersonal, objective standards of value whereby the 
relative worth and efficiency of teachers may be determined 
more justly and with greater precision than under the pre- 
vailing practices? 

3. As fundamental conditions for the cumulative improvement 
of teaching, and for the greater effectiveness of school organ- 
ization, should not teachers (a) be encouraged and trained to 
determine their own professional worth in accordance with 
standards mutually agreed upon by teachers and supervisors; 
(6) receive the benefits of direct, constructive criticism, and 
the stimulation of continuous, skillful, personal, non-interfer- 
ing supervision; and (c) claim exemption from snap measure- 
ments of their merit based upon casual visitation and inter- 
mittent inspection, and from the unsupported, arbitrary 
judgment of superiors? 

4. Does not the economical improvement of the products of 
public education require that the conditions and results of 
the teacher's work be tested by methods of an objective, 
quantitative character rather than by the judgments of a 
subjective, qualitative nature? 

* Provisional plan for the Measurement of Merit of Teachers, p. 1. 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 267b 

Rochester, New York, is representative of what may be 
called a third plan, in that all judgments as to the prepara- 
tion and efficiency of teachers, made by the first of the above 
methods, are further combined with tests, made at inter- 
vals and using standard test forms, as to the results of 
classroom instruction, and these are further combined with 
promotion records and other data collected by the bureau 
of efficiency of the school department. The principle fol- 
lowed here is that a combination of three different kinds of 
measures is far more reliable than one alone. With the per- 
fection of intelligence-measuring scales, and their some- 
what general introduction into school work for diagnostic 
purposes, and with the more general provision for efficiency 
experts and clinical psychologists in connection with school 
systems, this method is likely to be adopted somewhat gener- 
ally by cities interested in obtaining the best results in their 
schools. It possesses certain obvious advantages over the or- 
dinary personal-judgment plan for rating teaching efficiency. 

Incentives to growth. In any Hue of work the intensity 
of the desire for personal improvement is in direct propor- 
tion to the stimulus it receives. A physician, a lawyer, or 
an engineer who lacks in professional knowledge finds him- 
self unable to undertake important cases, and increases his 
professional equipment in order that he may do better work 
and command larger pay. These professions being on a 
competitive basis, what a man can earn in them depends 
upon what he can convince others that he is worth. Teach- 
ing, on the other hand, is virtually a state monopoly, into 
which competitive conditions enter but slightly. All begin 
at about the same level, often all are advanced in pay at 
about the same rate, and usually all reach the maximum 
salary very early in their teaching career. 

A teacher is no exception to the rule that most people do 
their best work when under a constant stimulus to profes- 



267c PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

sional activity. This stimulus, too, needs to be kept up 
for a rather long period of time, until the habit of keeping 
professionally active has been well established. A salary 
schedule, based only in part on years of service, and with 
additional rewards for growth and efficiency after the 
common maximum has been reached, offers one of the best 
means for providing the proper stimulus for further profes- 
sional growth. The institution of a salary schedule for ele- 
mentary-school teachers as well as for secondary-school 
teachers, based in part upon merit, may not be particularly 
easy of accomplishment, but it seems probable that in time 
the pubhc will demand its institution as evidence that the 
money it grants for annual maintenance is wisely expended. 

5. Salaries based on training and service. 

Within recent years, with the marked increase in the num- 
ber of normal-trained and college educated teachers entering 
the work of our city schools, and with the marked increase 
in the cost of living, there has been a tendency toward the 
introduction of a type of salary schedule which places rec- 
ognition on training and experience as the two main factors 
to be considered. Applied to a school system as a whole, 
such a plan would also abolish salary differences, given 
equal training and experience, between teachers in the dif- 
ferent parts of a school system. Theoretically this might be 
desirable, as a large degree of flexibihty which will permit of 
the adjustment of teachers to position is a desideratum, but 
practically, in most school systems and in the present stage 
of teacher training and conditions of city finance, the plan 
offers certain practical difficulties of a very formidable type. 

A salary schedule constructed on this combined basis 
would, in its simplest form, be somewhat as follows, assume 
ing increments of $150 for each year of additional scholar- 
ship and $60 for each year of added service as a teacher: -^ 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 267d 



I 



Years of approved training 

beyond completion of a 

four-year high school course 


Beginning salary 
in school system, 
for all teachers 


Uniform 
yearly incre- 
ment for service 


Years this 

payable 

for 


Maximum 

salary 
attainable 


Graduate of high school 
only 


$850 
1000 
1150 
1300 
1450 
1600 
1750 
1900 


$60 
60 
60 
60 
60 
60 
60 
60 


10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 


$1450 
1600 


One year's additional 
training 


Two years' additional 
training 


1750 


Three years' additional 
training 


1900 


Four years' additional 
training (A.B) 

Five years' additional 
training (A.M) 

Six years' additional 
training 


2050 
2200 
2350 


Seven years' additional 
training (Ph.D) 


2500 



Cities might begin only with two-year normal- trained teachers, in which case the schedule 
would begin with $1150, on the third line. 

In the simple form above given it will be seen that this type of salary schedule eliminates 
all questions of merit and efficiency. 

This type of salary schedule could, though, easily be com- 
bined with some form of an eflficiency rating. One plan would 
be to institute one or two "halts" in the automatic increases, 
as described on pages 260-61. These might come at the 
end of the third or fourth year, and the end of the seventh 
year. Teachers attaining a rating equivalent to "good" 
would pass the first "halt," but only teachers rated as "very 
good" would be advanced beyond the second "halt." 

Another plan would be to use an efficiency rating for all 
teachers, in conjunction with the above plan, there being an 
annual classification of teachers before awarding the auto- 
matic increases. For example, on the basis of combined 
supervisory ratings all teachers might be classified into the 
following groups: 

(a) Teachers who are entirely satisfactory. 

(6) Teachers whose work is not entirely satisfactory, but who 
have made an earnest effort to improve and who give pro- 
mise sufficient to warrant their retention. 



568 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

(c) Teachers whose work and attitude are so unsatisfactory and 
whose promise is so small as not to warrant their retention. 

Teachers in group (a) would be given the automatic 
advances without question; those in group (6) might or 
might not receive such, as seemed best to the superin- 
tendent, board, or a committee in charge; while group (c) 
would not be advanced in salary even should circumstances 
compel their temporary retention. 

6. Essential features of a good salary schedule. 
Summarizing the preceding discussion, the essential fea- 
tures of a good salary schedule for teachers may then be 
stated to be about as follows : — 

1. A high enough beginning salary to enable the city to secure 
well-trained and well-educated teachers for the service. 

2. Small automatic annual salary increases for a period of years, 
say five to seven years, during which time the teacher is 
gaining competency and reaching a point beyond which in- 
crease in teaching efficiency is usually small without further 
professional preparation. This common maximum should 
represent a living wage for a person with the habits, in- 
stincts, and training of a teacher. 

3. Provision whereby experienced teachers from elsewhere may 
be taken into the system, and started at some point in the 
scale above that of beginning teachers. 

4. Further salary increases, beyond the common maximum, to 
progressive and capable teachers, the basis for such payments 
being so arranged as to stimulate industry, encourage in- 
dividual improvement, and reward exceptional merit. 

5. Such an arrangement of salaries as will permit of the assign- 
ment of every teacher to that position or kind of work which 
he or she can do best, without first considering the salary 
of the position to which the teacher is to be assigned. 

6. Special salaries may, however, be attached to positions call- 
ing for special capacity, such as demonstration teachers, or 
teachers of unruly or incorrigible pupils, to which speciallv 
capable teachers may be assigned. 

7. Grades in the elementary-school service, analogous to those 
commonly found in the secondary-school service, could with 
entire propriety be created, with automatic increases in sal- 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 269 

ary within the grade until the maximum for the grade has 
been reached. 

8. For promotion from one grade to another, after the proba- 
tionary grade, evidence of professional growth and high 
classroom efficiency should, in general, be required. 

9. For such evidence, private study with local promotional 
examinations, or approved summer-school or other collegiate 
study, may be accepted for professional growth; the high 
classroom efficiency should be determined by as large a 
combination of tests of dififerent types, given by different 
individuals, as is feasible. Better results will probably be 
obtained if the results of all scoring and tests are open to 
the inspection of the teacher concerned. 

10. The maxima attainable for teachers who remain in the work 
and make teaching a professional career should be relatively 
large, — from two to two and a half times the beginning 
salary for the same class of work; but such maxima should 
not be attainable under about fifteen to eighteen years of 
service, nor without proper evidence of professional pro- 
ficiency. Those who make teaching a temporary employ- 
ment should not advance much beyond the common maxi- 
mum for all teachers. 

11. There should also be provision for a pension system, or for the 
placing of teachers in subordinate teaching or clerical posi- 
tions, and at lower pay, who, by reason of age, have outlived 
their usefulness as classroom teachers, so that those who have 
rendered faithful service but who, due to age or disease, are 
no longer efficient, can be retired for the good of the schools. 
Of the two plans the pension system is preferable, though the 
other has a certain usefulness. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. What advantage does a city, located in a low-salary and low-standard 
State, have in the retention of its own certificating machinery? If 
salaries and standards were high, what advantage would there be in 
dispensing with it? 

2. Is it safe to institute a payment-on-merit plan when the general level 
of salaries is quite low? Why? 

3. What would be reasonable minima and common maxima for elemen- 
tary-school and high-school teachers in city systems in your State? 

4. How do you account for the greater sensitiveness of elementary- 
school teachers to discrimination between teachers on the basis of 
eflBciency than is the case with high-school teachers? 



270 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

6. Why is it desirable to postpone the highest possible maximum salary 
for quite a number of years? 

6. Assuming that you thought it wise to give additional salary grants 
for further study, how much would you add to the yearly salary of a 
teacher who attended: — 

(a) A summer session in a state normal school? 

(b) A summer session in a university? 

(c) Spent a year in further study, after some years of teaching? 

7. What restrictions would you throw around such grants? 

8. Would such a plan of grading and appointing and paying teachers as 
is described on page 261 be good ? Would it be feasible? 

9. How do you account for the large success of promotional examina- 
tions in Kansas City, and the bitter opposition to the plan in Balti- 
more? 

10. Is the promotional-examination idea capable of correlation with the 
reading-circle idea, as set forth in the previous chapter? 

11. What changes or additions would you make in the statement of the 
essential features of a good salary schedule? 

12. Why is it difficult to raise the salaries of teachers in a city up to 
the level of salaries paid in other branches of the city service ? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Compare the plans and forms used for measuring classroom efficiency 
in the five cities described by Ruediger (pp. 139-46), and state which 
is the best, and why. Is the Elliott form an improvement over 
these? 

2. Of the promotional examination plans described by Ruediger (pp. 
117-39), which do you consider the best, and why? (See also Proceed- 
ings of National Education Associationy 1905, pp. 241-53, for a further 
description of plans in use.) 

5. Assume that you are in a city employing one hundred and fifty 
teachers, and already paying relatively good salaries, and that you 
could have additional funds for advancing salaries, if distributed on 
a basis of merit. Draw up a plan which will be as fair as possible 
to both teachers and taxpayers, and which will place the maximum 
emphasis on training and efficiency in classroom work. 

4. Should salaries be based on position, disregarding the sex of the 
incumbant? (This topic to involve an examination and review of the 
recent discussion as to equal salaries for men and women.) 

6. What are the equities involved in the matter of teachers' pensions, 
and what is the best form of a pension system for teachers in the 
public schools? 

6. Test up the salary schedule of any city you know by the state- 
ment of essential features, as given on pages 268-69. 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 271 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

Bobbitt, J. F. "Results of Plans to measure EflBciency in Teaching"; in 
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1915. 
A general discussion of the problem. 

Boyce, A. C. "A Method for guiding and controlling the Judging of 
Teaching EflSciency"; in School Review Monographs, no. vi, 1915, 
pp. 71-82. 

Discusses the general problem and illustrates, by a series of graphs, how teachers' 
qualities may be rated and scored. A valuable document. 

Boykin, J. C, and King, R. The Tangible Rewards of Teaching. 465 pp. 
Bulletin no. 16, 1914, U.S. Bureau of Education. 

Best source for detailed statistical data as to salaries paid to the several classes of 
teachers and school officers in the United States. Continued, for cities and towns 
having from 2500 to 5000 inhabitants, in Bui. no. 31, 1915. 

Butte, Montana. Report of a Survey of the School System. (1914.) 

Chapter VIII deals with the need for further training and salary schedules. 

Chancellor, W. E. Our Schools; Their Administration and Supervision. 

Chapter XVI, on salaries, tenure, and certification, is a discussion of the reasons 
why good salaries should be paid. 

Clark, J. B. "The Salaries of Teachers"; in Columbia University Quar^ 
ierly, vol. i, pp. 111-22. (1899.) Review of, in Educational Review, 
vol. 17, pp. 413-14. (April, 1899.) 

An excellent article. Declares that the question of salaries is purely economic, and 
concludes that to raise salaries one must raise the standard of teaching. 

Cooley, E. G. "The Basis of grading Teachers' Salaries"; in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1907, pp. 94-101. 

A good statement of the reasons for insisting on an eflBciency basis in paying public 
school teachers. 

Cotton, F. A. "How can the Present Efficiency of the Schools be main- 
tained?" In Cubberley and Elliott's State and County School Admin- 
istration, vol. II, Source Book, pp. 607-12. The MacmiUan Co., N.Y., 
1915. 

An address before the state teachers' association. Holds that to increase salaries 
without advancing qualifications is not wise. 

Cubberley, E. P. State and County Educational Reorganization. The Mac- 
miUan Co., N.Y., 1914. 

See Appendix F for the Elliott and Indiana success-grade forms for estimating the 
efficiency of teachers. 

Davidson, W. M., and Blewett, Ben. "How to measure the Efficiency of 
Teachers"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913» 
pp. 286-92. 

Two excellent papers on the rating of teachers and the merit system for salary 
advances. 



272 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. S. The Administration of Public Education 
in the United States. 

Chapter XV, on the Teaching StafiP, deals with salaries, pensions, and teachers' 
organizations. 

Elliott, E. C. "How shall the Merit of Teachers be tested and re- 
corded?" In Educational Administration and Supervision, vol. 1, pp. 
291-99. Also in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1915. 
Discusses the changing responsibiUties of the superintendent, and how to meet 
the change. 

Elliott, E. C. City School Supervision, World Book Co., N.Y., 1914. 

Chapter IX describes in some detail the methods and standards employed in rating 
teaching efficiency in New York City, and Chapter X describes the methods employed, 
giving blanks used, in a number of other cities. Good documentary chapters. 

Green, C. C. "The Promotion of Teachers on the Basis of Merit and 
Efficiency"; in School and Society, vol. i, pp. 705-09 (May 15, 1915). 
Also in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1915. 
A good discussion, with outline of a plan. 

Greenwood, J. M. "Experience in helping Teachers professionally"; in 
Educational Review, vol. 30, pp. 464-73. (December, 1905.) 

Describes the introduction of promotional examinations for salary increases in 
Kansas City, and the results on the teaching force. 

Lowry, CD. The Relation of Superintendents and Principals to the Train- 
ing and Professional Improvement of their Teachers. Seventh Year-Book 
of the National Society for the Scientific Study of Education, Part i. 
66 pp. 1908. 

States the problem, and then finds the solution in the promotional examination. 
Describes plans in use in a number of cities. 

McAndrew, Wm. "Where Education breaks down"; in Edvx:aiional Re- 
view, vol. 33, pp. 11-23. (January, 1907.) 

A very good article on the salary question. Need for salaries that will make teach- 
ing more attractive to the best men and women. 

McAndrew, Wm. "Some Suggestions on School Salaries"; in Educational 
Review, vol. 27, pp. 375-83. (April, 1904.) 
A good sensible article on the question. 

Maxwell, Wm. H. "Teachers' Salaries"; in A Quarter of a Century of Public 
School Development, pp. 238-57. 

Good extracts from his annual reports, dealing with questions of salary schedules 
and bases for paying men and women. 

Monroe, Paul. Cyclopedia of Education. 

See articles on " Teachers, Promotion of," and " Teachers, Salaries of," for good 
brief statements as to existing conditions and practices. 

Portland, Oregon. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. (1913.) 
441 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1915. 

Chapter V, on the salaries of teachers, considers the possibilities of a partial merit 
basis, and suggests certain plans capable of local application. 



PAY AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS 273 

Ruediger, W. C. Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service. 157 
pp. Bulletin no. 3, 1911, U.S. Bureau of Education. 
Good information relating to jwomotional examinations and plans for measuring the 
efficiency of teachers. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of a Survey of the School System. 324 pp. 
1915. 

Chapter IV deals with the salary schedule, and the distribution of salaries in the 
city. 

Small, W. H. "Should Teachers be required to present from Time to 
Time Evidences of Increased Scholarship?" If so, of what nature? 
In Proceedings of National Education Association, 1904, pp. 326-30. 

Favors incentives but not requirements. Discussion by Van Sickle (pp. 330-32), 
explaining Baltimore plan and giving a list of thesis topics used by teachers there. 

Van Sickle, J. H. " What should be the Basis for the Promotion of Teachers 
and the Increase of Teachers' Salaries?" In Proceedings of National 
Education Association, 1906, pp. 177-83. 

A good presentation of the promotional plan for teachers' salaries as adopted in 
Baltimore. 

Van Sickle, J. H. "Outlines of Methods of appointing and advancing 
Teachers in Various Cities, with Discussion", m Proceedings of National 
Education Association, 1905, pp. 244-53. 
Brief descriptions of plans then used by Baltimore, Denver, Omaha, Chicago, 
Kansas City, Ix)well, Newark, and New York City, with discussions. 

" Teachers' Rating Card in use at Omaha " ; in Elementary School Journal, 
vol. XX, pp. 723-24. (June, 1920.) 
A rating card worked out by the teachers themselves. 



CHAPTER XVn 

THE COURSES OF INSTRUCTION 

I. Construction and Types 
The superintendent and the courses of study. Whatever 
else the superintendent may be, the real and final test of 
his worth and efficiency lies in the knowledge he possesses 
as to means and purposes in the education of children; and, 
as a result of such knowledge, the influence he can exert on 
the instruction given in the schools through the making, 
moulding, and administering of the different courses^ of 
study. Organizer he must at times be, and administrator 
he must daily be, but his work in organizing and admin- 
istering are, after all, merely contributory to his larger 
success as the educational leader of the school system, and, 
in a sense, the educational leader of his community as well. 
In the construction and adaptation of the courses of in- 
struction, and in the interpretation of means and ends in 
educational procedure, the real measure of his competence 
for the position of superintendent of schools is to be found. 
Here, if anywhere, he should be, par excellence^ the expert; 
here his knowledge as a specialist in educational matters 
should stand forth distinctly; here should be evident that 

* The expression "courses of study" is used throughout this chapter 
instead of the more commonly used "course of study," for the reason that 
the author conceives of each subject, such as reading and Hterature, his- 
tory, geography, nature study and elementary science, household arts, 
etc., as being of such a nature that courses of study in each should be 
prepared. He also conceives of courses of study as being best arranged 
when a teacher is presented with a series of longitudinal views of the tool 
materials, instead of a horizontal cross-section of her particular segments 
of the different studies. 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 275 

large professional insight which makes him the natural 
leader of all his subordinates in the educational department; 
here he can render the services of which the schools stand 
most in need. All organization and administration should 
be contributory to this important end.^ 

For such conspicuous educational service the superin- 
tendent must be master of his calling. If he is not, he 
cannot expect to exert much really helpful influence on 
the work of the schools. Mastery, though, comes, in part, 
from years of practical experience, but also, in part, from 
careful professional study and preparation. To mould the 
thought of his principals and teachers calls for large educa- 
tional insight and pedagogical knowledge, and these are a 
resultant of study and thought, tested by school experience. 
It is now that the years of preparatory study and work in 
minor executive positions, the importance of which has 
been emphasized in an earlier chapter, ^ will become 
apparent. 

The superintendent's guiding hand. While stimulating 
principals and teachers to activity in arranging subject- 
matter and materials, and in adapting the course of in- 
struction to the needs of the pupils, the superintendent's 
larger insight into individual and community needs and 
educational processes should make his judgment worth 
more than that of his subordinates in the final determi- 

* "It is not easy to keep a clear perspective of values among the various 
details that press for attention in the routine of school administration. 
An active superintendent finds it easy to assume duties akin to those of 
a clerk of supplies or purchasing agent; to become a gatherer of statistics; 
to supervise buildings and grounds, with incidental attention to repairs 
and janitors; to select sites and superintend the construction of buildings; 
to find himself performing mere clerical duties; these and other details 
lose him to the real purpose for which he, oflBcially, exists, which is: to raise 
the standard of teaching and to improve the quality of instruction in the 
schools." (Superintendent Elson, in Proceedings of National Education AssO' 
dation, 1904, p. 188.) 

2 Chap. X. 



276 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

nations as to means and ends. His assistants may know 
more than he as to what is possible in their particular 
classes, or lines of work, but he should be in closer touch 
than they with procedure elsewhere, and he should see 
better than they the needs of the child and of the school 
system as a whole. He is, also, by the very nature of his 
work, in closer touch than they with the conditions and 
needs of the community served by the schools. While work- 
ing with teachers and principals in the construction and 
continual modification of the courses of instruction for the 
schools, it must be primarily the function of the superin- 
tendent to "throw into relief certain organizing and unify- 
ing principles which must ever form the light of guidance 
to teachers, thereby lifting them out of the fragmentary 
one-year view of both subject-matter and child-life, — 
which school classification imposes, — and giving them 
glimpses of the unity and wholeness of both, which are 
essential to any adequate perspective of educational values 
or of the educative process as a whole." ^ It is such profes- 
sional leadership which serves to illuminate and vitalize the 
details of schoolroom procedure. 

In the small city the superintendent of schools will nat- 
urally be closer to his teachers in the administration of a 
course of study than can be the case in a large city. In 
the former he will need to do much of the planning, can 
personally assist individual teachers in adapting and modi- 
fying the courses to meet local or temporary situations, and 
can closely supervise the teachers in carrying out the work 
decided upon. In the large city he must work largely 
through assistant superintendents, special supervisors, and 
principals. Yet in both cases "greatest good will come if 
he seeks constantly to raise the ideals of teachers, giving 
freedom to use their ability to realize these ideals, stimu- 
* Elson supra, p. 189. 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 277 

lating initiative in every way in principals and teachers, — 
by relying in the details of their work, both in matter and 
method, largely on their judgment; by enabling them to 
feel that they are true factors in the life of the school; by 
stimulating a sense of personal and professional responsi- 
bility and self-esteem; consequently, by framing the course 
of study on broad lines which may secure a healthy unity, 
but avoid the pitfalls of deadly uniformity; by encouraging 
discussion, and personal and professional research; by judi- 
ciously commending success; by tactful criticism; by free 
recognition of merit and the elimination of manifest incom- 
petency. To this may be added the inspiration of his own 
example, and occasional messages from aggressive col- 
leagues." ^ 

The construction of courses of study. One of the quickest 
means for determining the ideals and purposes which act- 
uate a school system is to examine the courses of study pre- 
scribed for the schools. From such an examination the real 
character of the ideals of the administration as to the pur- 
poses of education can quickly be told. Not only can one 
tell how the courses have been constructed, but also what 
pedagogical conceptions underlie the work. 

In general, and disregarding minor variations, courses of 
study group themselves about two main types, though 
with many courses lying in between and shading more or 
less into one or the other. These two types may be desig- 
nated as (1) the information or knowledge type, and (2) the 
development type. 

1. Information or knowledge courses. 
The pedagogical conceptions as to the purpose of education 
which lies back of the construction of this type of courses 
of study are that it is the mission of the school to pass 
* Elson, supra, p. 191. 



278 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

on the accumulated knowledge of the past to the next gen* 
eration, that the mere process of acquiring such knowledge 
gives good mental discipline, and that knowledge is synony- 
mous with power. Facts, often of no particular importance 
in themselves, are taught, memorized, and tested for, to be 
forgotten as soon as the school-grade need for them has 
passed. Tool studies, as opposed to content studies and 
constructional activities, are greatly overemphasized, and 
are made ends in themselves. Years of a child's life are 
often spent in learning supposed uses of a tool for which 
there is no use outside of the schoolroom itself; weeks, 
months, and even years are spent in drilling on problems 
of a type no man in practical life ever solves, and which can 
be of no use to any one except a school teacher. 

Arithmetic and formal grammar are greatly overem- 
phasized in such courses; reading is taught as an end in 
itself, instead of as a tool to unlock biography, history, and 
literature, and to lead to pleasure and enjoyment; the com- 
position work is dull, formal, and unproductive; geography 
is book geography, while the world before the eyes of 
teacher and children remains unread and almost unknown; 
drawing and music are formal; science is minimized, and 
used largely as a disciplinary study; and any real enrich- 
ment of the courses of instruction is wanting. Grade in- 
struction continues throughout the eighth grade, and the 
secondary-school courses also are bookish, somewhat limited 
in scope, and uniform for all types of students. Bookish 
and abstract work dominates the courses of instruction, to 
the serious injury of that large minority of children, if not 
actual majority, who must be educated largely through 
contact with concrete things. 

Dependence upon textbooks. Such courses of study also 
usually reveal a large dependence upon textbooks, with 
little or no supplementary or collateral material supplied. 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 279 

Often such courses are carefully subdivided into parts, and 
the pages in the specified textbooks which are to be taught, 
in each segment of the course, are enumerated. Often the 
courses of study depend so thoroughly upon the adopted 
textbooks that they are very brief, and consist almost en- 
tirely of a specification of certain pages in certain books, ^ 
giving to teachers no other directions or suggestions than 
are contained in such books. Such a plan naturally gives 
little liberty to principals or teachers, and hence relieves 
them of all responsibility in the matter of the adaptation 
or development of the work. The courses are handed down 
from above as finished products, and criticism of the courses 
is usually not especially welcomed by those who prepared 
them. The result is that both principals and teachers feel 

1 The following extract from the courses of study found in one of our 
American cities illustrates well such courses of instruction: — 
SEVENTH B GRADE 
PART FORTY 

Reading 
Cry's Fifth Reader, pages 97 to 142. 

Arithmetic 
Smith's Practical Arithmetic, pages 202 to 216. 

Language 
Buehler's Grammar, pages 81 to 95 inclusive. 
Geography 
Natural School Geography, pages 124 to 137, to end of China. 
Map Drawing, Humboldt Geographical Notebook, pages 15 to 32, inclusive. 

Spelling 
Reed's Word Lessons, pages 115 to 127 inclusive. 

Writing 
Outlook writing system. No. 6. 

Drawing 
Prang's Textbobk of Art Education, Book VI. 

Music 
New Educational Sd Music Reader. 

Physiology 
Krohn's Graded Lessons in Physiology and Hygiene, chaps, X, XI, XII. 
Similar descriptions are given for each of the fifty-four parts into 
which the nine years of elementary-school instruction are divided. 

See chapter viii, Portland Report, for a description of the workings of 
such a course of instruction in the schools, and the effect on all concerned. 



280 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADIVONISTRATION 

that they are relieved of any responsibility for what they 
contain, or their educational result; the instruction tends to 
become formal and routine and perfunctory in type; and the 
teaching force tends slowly to go to sleep, so far as thinking 
about what they are doing is concerned.^ 

The administration of such courses. Such courses are 
also characterized by an almost deadening uniformity, and 
the work of each teacher and school is usually carefully 
checked up by supervisors who act as inspectors, and by pe- 
riodical written tests sent out from the central office. The 
administration of the courses of study becomes the running 
of a machine. So much work is laid out to be done, and 
the proof of the doing of it is to be found in the reports 
of progress and the quarterly or half-yearly written tests. 
Anticipation of the examinations dominates the work of 
instruction; fact reviews are frequent; teachers keep lists 
of the questions for years preceding, and carefully coach 
their pupils on the points it is thought may be asked for; 
and the standing of the schools and teachers is in large 
part determined by the promotional records. The almost 
inevitable result is that both teachers and pupils lose sight 
of the real aims in school work and the purposes of educa- 

* "Neither by example nor by precept do such outlines suggest to 
teachers and principals any thought of the function of each of the pre- 
scribed subjects as means of education; any consideration of the relative 
importance for Portland children, not to mention different groups of 
Portland children, of the numerous topics treated in textbooks designed 
for use throughout the country ; any correlation in the treatment of closely 
related subjects; any adaptation of method to the educative ends sought 
through the use of this textbook material. On the contrary, whether so 
intended or not, the one all-dominating suggestion of the published course 
of study for the elementary schools is that so many pages of certain text- 
books are to be learned, and at a certain time and in a certain order. This 
suggestion, reinforced by the system of uniform city examinations from 
the fourth grade on, and by supervisory inspection, has become the chief 
guiding purpose in the work of teachers, above the primary grades; it 
could scarcely be otherwise." (Superintendent Spaulding, in the Portland 
School Survey Report, chap, vin.) 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 281 

tion; the important ends of instruction are subordinated 
to the cramming of facts; the real abilities of teachers and 
children are in no way measured by the results; the retard- 
ation and elimination of pupils in the system is high; and 
the paralyzing effect of such an administration of instruc- 
tion extends through all branches of the school system 
and is evidenced in the character of the final output of 
the schools. 

Such a knowledge conception of educational aims and 
purposes also carries uniformity for all as a natural corol- 
lary. If knowledge is the important thing, and the courses 
of study represent the knowledge which it has been decided 
should be taught, then the insistence upon the acquirement 
of the knowledge follows quite naturally. The kind, amount, 
and order of the subject-matter to be learned, by all pupils 
in all parts of the city, and regardless of age, past experience, 
future prospects, or physical or mental condition, is uni- 
formly laid down for all. If apothecaries' measure and bank 
discount in arithmetic, participles and the subjunctive mood 
in grammar, the geography of Africa and Asia in geo- 
graphy, and algebra and the Merchant of Venice in high- 
school work are necessary for one, it naturally follows that 
they should be required of all. 

Hence promotions depend upon mastery of such require- 
ments, and children entering from other school systems, 
where the requirements have not been quite the same, natur- 
ally are set back and required to bring up the back work. 
If the geography of Africa and longitude and time are re- 
quired in the sixth grade, and a boy enters from elsewhere 
who has finished the sixth grade but who has not had these 
subjects, he is held back until he has made up the work in 
which he is found deficient. If completion of the grammar- 
school course is a prerequisite for admission to the high 
school, and a girl of twenty who stopped school at the end 



282 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

of the seventh grade and who is now soon to be married, de- 
sires to enter for a year's work in the domestic science and 
household arts course, she naturally finds herself unable to 
do so. Even children in day schools for the deaf, in parental 
schools, and in schools for those of low mental capacity, 
often find it necessary to follow the regularly ordained line 
of instruction. 

Effect on the instructing body. The knowledge theory 
dominates everything; the supervision becomes inspection; 
the chief educational function of the central office is to say 
what is to be done and to test the results; the principals 
become keepers of records and handers-out of chalk and 
supplies; and the teachers do their part in a passive and 
routine manner, thinking little as to the educational signifi- 
cance of what they do, and without interest in educational 
procedure, so long as their pupils pass and they are let alone 
by the inspecting authorities. 

The preparation of such courses of study requires but little 
thought. To be sure, the knowledge theory underlies their 
construction, but they could nevertheless be prepared by 
mathematically dividing off the pages of the textbooks, or 
by copying what had been prepared elsewhere. The effect of 
such courses on the schools is as bad as their preparation is 
easy, and the promulgation and administration of such a 
type of courses of instruction for the schools is one of the best 
recipes that can be given for producing an unthinking and 
professionally inactive body of principals and teachers. 
There may be an appearance of smooth-running machinery 
and an absence of friction, but such quiet activity is due 
rather to the professional death on all sides than to the quiet 
hum of a professionally interested teaching body. 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 283 

2. The development type of courses. 

Entirely different conceptions as to the nature and pur- 
pose of education underlie the preparation of this type of 
courses of study. Instead of being fixed and finished pro- 
ducts, this type of courses remain living and developing 
things. Instead of facts being conceived as important in 
themselves, they are regarded as of no real importance until 
they have been put to use. Knowledge is conceived of as 
life experience and inner conviction, and not as the memo- 
rization of the accumulated knowledge of the past, — as a 
tool to do something with, and not as a finished product in 
itself. The whole conception of the school is, in consequence, 
changed from that of a place where children prepare for life, 
by learning certain traditional things, to a place where chil- 
dren live life, and are daily brought in contact with such 
real life experiences as will best prepare them for the harder 
problems of life which lie just ahead. The children in the 
community who present themselves for education, and not 
the more or less traditional subject-matter of instruction, 
are regarded as the real educational problem. Of course, 
under such a working conception, nothing can remain very 
fixed or very final. 

The principal and teacher in such a school system. The 
principals and teachers in a school system where the courses 
of instruction have been worked out on a basis of such 
modern educational conceptions, naturally occupy quite a 
different position from that of principals and teachers in 
city school systems which follow the other and older type 
of courses of study. It now becomes the business of all to 
think over and study the problems of instruction, with a 
view to adapting and adjusting the school work to the needs 
and capacities of the pupils to be instructed. The chief 
purpose of the school principals, in so far as their work with 



284 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

teachers relates to instruction, and the chief purpose of the 
teachers in the classrooms with the children, now becomes 
that of acting as stimuli to thinking over the problems at 
hand. 

The principal proposes methods of procedure to his 
teachers, and these are considered and tried out. The 
teachers propose problems to their pupils, and guide them 
in thinking, studying, and examining them. In each case 
the solving is the real thing; not the memorizing of some 
one else's solution. 

In a way, both principals and teachers stand as stimuK 
to individual activity, as whetstones upon which those stim- 
ulated may bring their thinking to a keener edge, and as 
critics by whose help young people may develop their abiHty 
to reason accurately and well. The purpose of instruction 
is changed from the memorization of facts, to that of fitting 
pupils for personal responsibilities; from that of accumulat- 
ing information, to that of training young people to stand 
on their own feet; from that of transmitting to them the 
inherited knowledge of the past, to that of preparing them 
for social efficiency in the life of to-morrow. 

Mere drill — often meaningless and unintelligent drill — is 
largely replaced by lessons involving appreciation and ex- 
pression; problems that prepare for efficient participation 
in the work of democratic government are emphasized, and 
training in solving them is given; and the social relation- 
ships of the classroom and the school are directed toward 
the preparation of socially efficient men and women. The 
teacher's main duty becomes that of guiding and directing 
the normal processes of thought and action on the part of 
pupils, of extending their appreciation into new directioiis, 
of widening the horizon of their ambitions, and of stimu- 
lating the development of larger and better ideals for life 
and for service. 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 285 

The final test for all such work naturally cannot be the 
term or the quarterly written examination, but must be the 
judgment of principal and teacher as to whether the pupil 
has developed sufficiently, under such a course of training, 
as to be ready to attempt the problems which will meet him 
in the next grade ahead. 

Such courses growing courses. As was said above, noth- 
ing can be very fixed or very final in the courses of instruc- 
tion in a school system actuated by such conceptions as to the 
purposes for which it exists. There will, of course, be certain 
constants in instruction, which will be more or less generally 
required of all normal children. Certain alternatives also 
will be proposed, from which schools or teachers may choose. 
Certain optionals will also be included, which may be taken 
up or omitted, as the needs of the classes or of the brighter 
pupils may seem to require. 

The courses, though, will be regarded as dynamic rather 
than static, in the sense that year by year they will be sub- 
ject to change to meet changing needs, or to bring them 
more into harmony with the results of the best experience, 
either within or without the city. The needs of the com- 
munity and of society are ever changing and growing, while 
the needs of children vary much, and the adaptation of 
schools, teaching, and subject-matter to meet these chang- 
ing needs is one of the most important problems connected 
with the supervision of instruction. 

Cooperation of all needed. Such a task is too large for one 
man, even in a small city, though one man, or in a large city 
a few men, must in a way oversee and guide and in the end 
decide upon the work. While the task calls for good leader- 
ship, it calls even more for the united efforts of all principals 
and teachers, and all should be made to feel that the adjust- 
ment and the adaptation of the courses of instruction to the 
needs of pupils under their charge is in a way their problem. 



286 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

This demands flexibility in place of the usual rigidity, and 
the acceptance, as preparation for the next grade ahead, of 
whatever type of educational experience has seemed most 
useful to the child or group in the grade below. It also de- 
mands that a teaching force be guided by the right kind of 
educational conceptions and standards of measurement, 
that they may, in consequence, work along intelligent lines. 
Changes in the course of study, changes in the types of 
schools, changes in organization within individual schools 
or individual classrooms, and changes in the immediate aims 
and methods of instruction should be possible at any time, 
if, by so doing, the work of the schools may be adapted 
better to the ever-changing needs of groups of pupils and 
elements in the community. 

Variations between schools. The idea that all children in 
a city should pursue the same courses of study goes back to 
the knowledge conception of educational work, and is inde- 
fensible on any modern standpoint as to the nature and 
purpose of public education. To require all of the children 
of a State to follow the same courses, is, to put it mildly, a 
stiU greater educational blunder. In any modern city diverse 
elements collect together in different parts, and these have 
different economic, social, and moral standards. The chil- 
dren vary not only from group to group, but within the dif- 
ferent groups as well. One school may be composed largely 
of the children of recently arrived Italians, another of the 
children of recently arrived Scandinavians and Russian 
Jews, another of substantial Germans, another of middle- 
class Americans of different racial stocks, and another of 
wealthy professional and business men. Not only the needs, 
but the possibiKties in instruction will vary much in the 
different schools, while some children in each will equal the 
best and some the poorest to be found in any other school. 
The emphasis in instruction will need to be placed some- 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 287 

what differently in the different schools if the best educa- 
tional results are to be obtained. Even the schools, as 
wholes, may be allowed to develop along somewhat different 
lines. ^ Better to meet such individual differences in the 
upper grades of the elementary school, a differentiation in 
courses for pupils of different types and destinies is very 
desirable. In the next chapter this will be considered more 
at length. 

Experimental rooms or schools. A superintendent of 
schools ought to have no hesitancy in permitting teachers 
or schools to try new experiments in instruction, under regu- 
lated conditions. On the contrary, he ought to encourage 
such experimentation. Connected with every school system 
there ought to be a few experimental rooms. Even if the 
results prove no better than the methods then in use, or 
even prove unsatisfactory, the effect of such experimenta- 
tion on the teaching force is good. It keeps principals and 
teachers thinking, and tends to prevent the oncoming of 
that mental crystallization which seems to settle gradually 
over so many principals and teachers like the hardening of 
a plaster cast. 

Under the direction of superintendent and principals a 
few of the more reliable teachers should try new experiments 
in instruction. If these turn out well, it is then easy to 
introduce them into the schools; if not, they can be let alone. 
Growth comes from such an open-minded attitude toward 
new methods and ideas, and not from standing still, repeat- 
ing the same operations and following the same methods 
day after day and year after year.^ 

1 The city of Indianapolis is a good case in point. The principals and 
teachers there have been allowed to develop their schools along some- 
what different lines, and to give to each an individuality. 

2 The introduction of departmental instruction, domestic science, kin- 
dergartens, vocational work, the substitution of German or Spanish in 
the seventh and eighth grades for English grammar, the omission of arith- 



288 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Study of local problems and needs. Too little study of 
the results of the instruction given or of local needs and 
community problems, on the part of many of our city 
school systems, is evidenced when a close study is made of 
the courses of instruction outlined for use in the schools,^ 
and of the statistical tables pubKshed showing the classifi- 
cation of pupils in the schools. The result is that our schools 
too often fail to satisfy the needs of either the children or of 
the community, and, in turn, fail to receive the community 
support which should be their due. The consequence is a 
school system satisfying, to only a limited extent, the educa- 
tional needs of the children; often providing but little spe- 
cialization of work; and often with many children in the 
grades who are unable to make proper progress under the 
type of instruction provided. The study of such a condition 
at once leads to efforts at the differentiation of instruction. 

Our schools, also, too often exist as a thing apart and 
by themselves, instead of closely correlating their educa- 
tional service to the needs of the community served. Our 
Y.M.C.A.'s are often far more successful in this respect 

metic from the first and second grades, larger emphasis on science, con- 
structional activities in some of the lower grades, parallel courses of different 
types, and minimum and maximum courses for different children in the 
same class or grade, all these are examples of the more common types of 
experiments. The organization of a school in the city after the Gary plan 
of instruction is a type of an experiment on a larger scale. 

^ The writer has, for years, made his course in city school administra- 
tion culminate in a school survey of some city by each student in the 
class. The report is worked up from all available and obtainable data, — 
school reports, courses of study, board rules and regulations, teacher- 
data, salary-schedules, the state school law, city charters, chamber of 
commerce literature. United States Census data, commerce and labor 
data, financial statistics, etc., — and, while some of the conclusions might 
be modified by a close study made on the ground, the results are neverthe- 
less indicative of the city's educational position. One prominent fact 
brought out in most of these surveys is the lack of relation of the courses 
of instruction to community needs and problems. Most of the pubHc school 
surveys which have been made point to a similar condition of affairs. 
(See in particular, the surveys of Portland and Butte.) 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 289 

than are the public schools. A close study of the social and 
economic position of a city^ will not only reveal many un- 
satisfied educational needs, but will enable the school au- 
thorities to so shape and so redirect the instruction as not 
only to make the schools render a much larger community 
service, but, at the same time, to prepare pupils better for 
real success and happiness in life. It is from such larger 
community service that larger community support, both 
moral .and financial, must ultimately come. 

In the following chapter we shall point our how some of 
these needs have been met by adaptations and adjust- 
ments tending to break up the mass idea of instruction. 

Economy of time in education. One of the important lines 
for future study and experimentation in our public school 
systems lies along the direction of effecting an economy of 
time in instruction. This will call for eliminations in subject- 
matter and for the shortening -up of the work of instruction, 
so as to get pupils into the higher work at an earlier date. 
Much subject-matter of little real use is still taught in many 
of our schools, and in many school systems, particularly in 
the eastern part of the United States, nine years are still 
given to the elementary-school course of study. This means 
an age of nineteen years, at a normal rate of progress, when 
a student completes the high school, whereas at this age a 
capable student ought to be through his second year of 
college. The two questions of desirable eliminations in 
subject-matter, and the shortening of the schooling period, 
especially for the most capable children, will be questions 
of large importance in the near future.^ 

1 For an example of this, see the Portland School Survey, chaps, vi 
and VII. See also the Springfield Survey Report, the Butte Survey Report, 
or the Salt Lake City Survey Report. 

2 The nine-year elementary-school course was once common. To-day 
eight years is the length of time usually required, but many school systems 
have further shortened the period to seven years. See articles by Green- 
wood, Judd, and Judson on this point. 



290 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINLSTRATION 

In both elementary and secondary education there are 
many opportunities for the elimination of waste in instruc- 
tion, and for the economy of time in passing pupils along. 
In part this calls for eliminations ^ in courses, in part for the 
introduction of new types of educational tools, and in part 
for adjustments and differentiations in instruction to meet 
individual and community needs. This latter phase of the 
question will be considered more at length in the following 
chapter. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Would efficiency in other lines excuse a superintendent of schools 
from not knowing much about courses of study? 

2. How far is it desirable to have teachers and principals assist in the 
preparation and modification of courses of study? 

3. Suppose the courses so prepared are old-style and reactionary, what 
should the superintendent do? 

4. After courses of study have been adopted and printed, should a super- 
intendent refuse to allow of a modification? Is it desirable to allow 
of modifications, for certain teachers or schools, that are not allowed 
generally? 

5. Why is an examination of the printed courses of study the best single 
index as to the character of the school system maintained? What 
would be a second good index? 

6. Contrast the educational theory underlying knowledge-type courses 
of study and development-type courses of study? Why is uniformity 
the natural corollary of the former? 

7. What do you understand to be meant by tool and by content studies? 
By "fads" in courses of study? 

8. In what kind of a school system will the so-called "fads" receive most 
attention? 

9. Why is the public so slow to appreciate the value of the newer 
studies ? 

10. State the objections to courses of study based upon pages in text- 
books. 

1 See Jessup's "Economy of Time in Arithmetic," in Proceedings of 
National Education Association, 1914, pp. 209-22, for a good example of 
possible eliminations. Also see the four reports on language and grammar, 
arithmetic, reading, and history and geography, and a fifth paper de- 
scribing some typical progressive experiments, in the "Report of the Com- 
mittee on Economy of Time in Education," in the Proceedings of National 
Education Association, for 1915. 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 291 

11. What do you think of the idea of allowing different- type courses in 
different parts of a city? 

12. Should a girl who cannot get the work in arithmetic, or a boy who 
cannot get the work in grammar, be allowed to go on into the next 
grade? 

13. Should the same courses of study be followed in special-type schools 
as in the regular schools? 

14. Should lessons and work leading to appreciation and expression be 
made of as much importance as lessons and work whose aim is drill? 
What is the place and importance of drill in education? 

15. What about the argument, in cities where there is much changing 
of residence, that courses should be uniform in all schools so as to 
facilitate transfers of pupils from school to school? 

16. Whj' do schoolmasters so commonly think of children in terms of 
courses of study, instead of courses of study in terms of children? 

17. Will a school system closely adapted to local needs cost more to run 
than a traditional school? Why? Why will such a school, however, be 
supported better by the people, if they understand what is being done? 

18. Do you think that the common argument that American boys waste 
time, and do not progress in school as fast as they should, is well 
founded? 

19. Why have continental European school systems had a decided ad- 
vantage over American school systems in the matter of a more rapid 
advance of their pupils? 

20. Do the arguments for a seven-year elementary-school course of study 
appeal to you as good? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Suppose that you have just been elected superintendent of schools 
in another city, the schools of which are in need of many changes. 
In particular the courses of study need a general overhauling. Draw 
up an outline of the facts concerning the city, the people, and their 
needs you would think it desirable to know to guide you in reorgan- 
izing the instruction in the schools. 

2. Take a course of study used in some city school system in your 
vicinity, and point out the re\'isions which would save time without 
impairing the value of the instruction given. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

1. Construction and types. 

Butte, Montana. Report of a Survey of the School System. (1914.) 

Chapter III, on the courses of study, describes courses which represent the knowl* 
edge conception of education, and points out desirable changes. 

Chancellor, W. E. Our Schools ; Their Administration and Supervision^ 
Chapter XII is a brief statement of courses of instruction, from the point of view 
of outgoing and incoming studies. 



292 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Dewey, John. "The Situation as regards the Course of Study"; in 
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1901, pp. 332-48. Also 
in Educational Review, vol. 22, pp. 26-49. 

A good statement of the obstacles to progress, and the need of substituting some 
better plan for the tentative and empirical experimentation which has characterized 
progress during the nineteenth century. 

Draper, A. S. American Education, pp. 119-36. 

In a chapter entitled "Demands upon the Schools," something of the purposes and 
problems in instruction in a democratic school system are set forth. 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. S. The Administration of Public Educor' 
tion in the United States. 

Chapter XVIII, on the elementary-school course of study, is a theoretical treatment 
of the problems involved in the construction of courses, and their cont<^nt and form. 

Elson, W. H. "The Superintendent's Influence on the Course of 
Study"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1904, pp. 
188-94. 

An excellent article on the superintendent's duties in the matter and methods of 
the course of study. Holds that here is the crowning issue in school administration, 
to which all else is incidental and contributory. 

Elson, "W. H., and Bachman, F. P. "Different Courses for Elementary 
Schools"; in Educational Review, vol. 39, pp. 357-64. (April, 1910.) 
Different social and intellectual needs demand different types of instruction. 
Lee, Joseph. "The Need to dream"; in Proceedings of National Educa- 
tion Association, 1913, pp. 159-69. 

A very readable article on the kindergarten, music, literature, and imaginative 
work as important elements in the training of children. 

McMurry, Frank. "The Uniform Minimum Curriculum with Uniform 
Examinations"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 
1913, pp. 131-43. Good discussion, pp. 143-48. 

'• Examines the proposal, and condemns it as contrary to all modern educational 
theory. A strong and readable article. 

McMurry, Frank. Elementary School Standards. World Book Co., 
New York, 1913. 

Chapter VIII presents the standards for judging the value of courses of study, and 
Chapter IX applies the standards to each of the subjects of the elementary-school 
course. Chapter IX contains much suggestive material. 

Portland, Oregon. Report of the Survey of the Public School Syatem. 
(1913.) 441 pp. Reprinted by Worid Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 
1915. 

Part II, "Instructional Needs," which covers half of the report, describes the 
knowledge-conception courses of study found there, shows what are the educational 
needs of such a community, and outlines an educational program calculated to meet 
the needs of such a city. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Re-port of a Survey of the School System. (1915.) 
324 pp. 

Chapter VI, on the printed courses of study, and chapter VII, on the instruction 
and supervision as seen, describe conditions in a city where the development con- 
ception of education prevails. 



TYPES OF COURSES OF STUDY 293 

Wolfe, L. E. "The Many-Book vs. the Few-Book Course of Study"; 
in Educational Review, vol. 45, pp. 146-54. (February, 1913.) 

Believes that the use of a large number of textbooks of a new type, directed more 
toward preparation for social efficiency, would give better educational results. 

Economy of time. 

Baker, James H., Chairman. Economy of Time in Education. 106 pp. 

Bulletin no. 38, 1913, U.S. Bureau of Education. Good bibliography. 

An important report, by a committee of the Council of the National Education 

Association. Deals with the question as it relates to both elementary and secondary 

education, and in the light of the underlying principles involved. 

Eliot, C. W. "Shortening and enriching the Grammar-School Course"; 
in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1892, pp. 617-25. 
Also in his Educational Reform, pp. 253-69. 

An important early document, forecasting much of the change that has since 
taken place. 

Greenwood, J. M. "Shorter Time in Elementary Schools"; in Educa- 
tional Review, vol. 24, pp. 375-90. (November, 1902.) 

Facts as to conditions in Kansas City. Thinks a seven-year course as good as an 
eight-year. Gives some data. 

Judd, C. H. "A Seven- Year Elementary School"; in Proceedings of 
National Education Association, 1913, pp. 225-34. 

Describes the progressive changes and eliminations which have led to the aboli- 
tion of the eighth grade in the University of Chicago school. 

Judd, C. H. "The Meaning of Secondary Education"; in School Re^ 
new, vol. 21, pp. 11-26. (January, 1913.) 
On the need of reorganization to prevent waste. 

Judson, H. P. 1. "Waste in Elementary Curricula"; in jSc/ioo/ /Jei;iew, 
vol. 20, pp. 433-41. (September, 1912.) 

2. "Economy in Education," Ibid., vol. 21, pp. 441-45. (Septem- 
ber, 1913.) 

Two good articles on waste in elementary and secondary education, and the need 
for its elimination. 

Weet, H. S. "Shortening the Course of Study"; in Proceedings of Nor 
tional Education Association, 1914, pp. 269-72. 

A very good statement of the problems presenting themselves for solution. 

Wilson, H. B., Chairman. "Report of the Committee on Economy of 
Time in Education"; in Proceedings of National Education Asso- 
ciation, 1914, pp. 206-43. 

A preliminary report of the chairman, and three individual reports. The first, 
a study of "Economy of Time in Arithmetic," by W. A. Jessup, is an especially sug- 
gestive study, showing types of eliminations which may be made. See also 1916 
volume of Proceedings for further studies. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE COURSES OF INSTRUCTION 

II. Adjustments and Differentiations 
The different attempts to adjust and differentiate instruc- 
tion, to meet special and individual needs, group themselves 
around four main topics which will form the subject-matter 
of this chapter, namely, (1) The study of retardation and 
acceleration; (2) promotional plans; (3) differentiations in 
school work; (4) fundamental reorganizations. We shall 
consider these in the above order. 

1. Retardation and acceleration 

The average course of study. Courses of study in our 
cities are usually constructed to meet the needs of the so- 
called "average child," and children of average capacity 
usually do reasonably well under them. For some of the 
children, though, some or all of the work is too difficult, or is 
wholly unsuited to their needs, and as a result they fail to 
make proper progress, while for others the work is too easy, 
and in consequence they learn habits of idleness by not 
being worked nearer to their capacities. Many a college 
loafer belongs to this latter class. 

To meet the needs of these different classes of children 
certain adjustments and differentiations in courses of study 
are desirable, in order that each child of school age in the 
community may find work in the schools suited to his powers. 

The following figure shows the condition existing in a city ^ 

^ From data obtained from a survey of the schools of Owatonna, Minne- 
sota, by Superintendent W. B. Thornburgh, and published in an article 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 295 

where the courses of study and the promotional plans have 
been adjusted to meet the needs of the great mass of pupils. 
The figure shows that (the courses of study are also well 
balanced between the needs of the gifted and the slow, as 
practically the same percentage of accelerated and retarded 
pupils are found in the schools. This represents what may 
be said to be an average, and a tolerably satisfactory con- 
dition. In an average school of 400 pupils in such a school 
system, 281 will be advancing regularly with their grade. 




Progress, 



Accelerated, 

14.4^ 



Pig. 18. PROMOTIONAL RESULTS IN A CITY FOLLOWING A COURSE 
OF STUDY ADJUSTED TO THE AVERAGE CAPACITY OF THE PUPILS 



58 will be ahead of their regular grade, and 61 will be more 
or less retarded, due to one cause or another. 

A poorly adjusted course of study. Figure 19 shows a 
condition in a city ^ where the courses of study, or the pro- 
motional examinations, or both, have not been so adjusted 
as to permit of the normal progress of a large percentage of 
the pupils in the schools. Here one child in four is not able 
to advance with his class, some being two, three, and four 
years behind their proper age grade, while but eight chil- 
dren in a thousand are one year ahead of their regular grade. 

entitled "Is your Course adjusted to the Capacity of your Pupils?" In 
School Education, vol. 34, p. 5. (December, 1914.) 

1 From data given in Table 17 of the Report of the Surrey of the Public 
School System of Portland. This table included only those one or more 
years behind or ahead. If half years had been taken a little more favorable 
showing would have been made for the accelerated pupils, but a less favor- 
able one would have resulted for the retarded group. 



296 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



This city also requires nine years to complete the elemen- 
tary-school courses of study. Such a condition as is shown 
in the second figure is not uncommon in our American 
cities,^ though perhaps less common than was the case a 
few years ago. 

If the conception as to the need of adjusting the courses of 
study to meet the ever-varying needs of the pupils, as was 
stated in the preceding chapter, is a correct one, and modern 
educational theory certainly sustains it, then there is need, 




Fig. 19. PROMOTIONAL RESULTS IK A CITY FOLLOWING A KNOW- 
LEDGE-TYPE COURSE OF STUDY, AND WITH QUARTERLY PRO- 
MOTIONAL EXAMINATIONS 

in practically all school systems, for a much more careful 
study of the age distribution of pupils in the schools, with a 
view to a better adjustment of the courses of instruction to 
the needs of pupils. 

The results of non-promotion. The result is a great 
human waste. In school systems having such conditions 
as are shown in Figure 19, hundreds of boys and girls are 
not where they ought to be, and are not doing what they 
ought to be doing. Boys and girls are in the elementary 

1 The Report of the Survey of the School System of Butte, chap, i, and the 
Report of a Survey of the School System of Salt Lake City, chap, ix, both 
contain much excellent data relating to the age and grade classification 
of pupils in cities having much more than the nonnal amount of retarda- 
tion. Bachman and Ayres (see Bibliography) also give much valuable data. 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 297 

school, studying the puzzles of arithmetic and the technicali- 
ties of English grammar, when they ought to be in the high 
school or in a vocational school, studying something better 
suited to their needs and more likely to awaken their inter- 
est and enthusiasm. Boys and girls are failing of promo- 
tion because of written term examinations or courses of 



I 



HIIIIII 



II 



in 



IV 



VI 



VII 



vin 



Over Age 



Normal Age 



Under Age 



PiQ. 20. RETARDATION AND ACCELERATION IN THE GRADES 

(From the Study of Over-Age and Progress in the Public Schools of Dayton^ 

Ohio.) 

Note the increasing retardation up to the sixth grade, after which the com- 
pulsory-attendance exemption at fourteen years of age beiriiis to reduce the 
number of over-age pupils in school. In the last two years tlie brighter pupils 
who remain (the eighth grade enrollment was only half of that of the fourth 
grade) make a better showing. 

study unsuited to their needs and capacities, and are being 
prepared to become failures in life. They remain in the lower 
grades, instead of passing on up, congesting these grades and 
interfering with the regular instruction of normal pupils; too 
large for their seats; often unfit associates for the smaller 
children; usually accomplishing little; and usually being 
prepared to join the ranks of the inefficient and the unsuc- 
cessful. 



298 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

When the end of the compulsory school age comes, and 
the compulsory school law no longer holds them, those who 
have failed to make a success of their school work usually 
leave school. If one charts the distribution of pupils, by 
grades, in any school system which has not made a strong 
effort to adjust its instruction to child needs, a marked 
downward tendency will be noted in the curve at the close 
of the compulsory school period. When it is considered 
with what a meager equipment these young people leave 
the schools, and what a poor preparation they have for in- 
telligent citizenship or for any really effective service, the 
bad results of such a situation become evident. 

The effect of such conditions. The effect of such condi- 
tions on the children is very bad. The mental effect of 
failure is large and tends to destroy seK-confidence, whereas 
the schools ought to be training pupils for success in life. 
A boy who has twice failed of promotion has probably been 
prepared to become a failure in life. The effect of failure on 
girls is equally depressing. 

Whenever any large degree of non-promotion or over-age 
is detected, the causes^ for such conditions should receive 
careful attention on the part of the principal and superin- 
tendent. Unless such officers carefully study their age- and 
grade-distribution tables, they seldom realize the extent to 
which retardation exists in their own schools. Age- and 

^ Among the more common causes of over-ageness in the schools are: — 

1. Lack of previous educational opportunities. 

2. Lack of use of English speech, 

3. Mental backwardness, which in time will cure itself. 

4. Not been "reached" by teachers. 

5. Mental deficiency, which will not cure itself. 

6. Malnutrition, physical defects, or disease. 

7. Bad home conditions. 

8. Uniform promotional examinations, and a knowledge-conception 
of the teaching process. 

9. School not suited to pupil's needs. 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 299 



grade-distribution tables should be scrutinized with care, 
and the different schools should be studied and compared 
with other schools. Sometimes such study will reveal slow 
schools, sometimes it will reveal the need of "speeding-up'* 
the whole school system. 

The following table, compiled from data given by Ayres, 
shows the effects of different annual promotion rates in a 
school system, assuming that deaths and withdrawals are 
balanced by new pupils entering : — 



Promotion 
rate 


Yeara required 

for child to 

complete eight 

grades 


Failures among 
each 1000 chil- 
dren in eight 
years 


Number of chil- 
dren in each 
1000 failing in 
eight years 


Children one pear 

or more above 

normal age for 

grades 


100 


8.00 











99 


8.08 


70 


68 


3.4 


98 


8.16 


140 


132 


6.7 


97 


8.24 


210 


192 


9.9 


96 


8.33 


280 


249 


12.9 


95 


8.42 


350 


302 


15.9 


94 


8.50 


420 


352 


18.7 


93 


8.60 


490 


398 


21.4 


92 


8.69 


560 


442 


24.0 


91 


8.78 


630 


483 


26.4 


90 


8.89 


700 


522 


28.8 


89 


8.98 


770 


558 


31.1 


88 


9.09 


840 


591 


33.3 


87 


9.19 


910 


623 


35.4 


86 


9.30 


980 


652 


37.4 


85 


9.41 


1050 


679 


39.4 


84 


9.52 


1120 


705 


41.2 


83 


9.63 


1190 


729 


43.0 


82 


9.75 


1260 


751 


44.8 


81 


9.87 


1330 


771 


46.4 


80 


10.00 


1400 


790 


48.0 



The super-normal child. The presence of large numbers 
of over-age pupils in a room, who consume time and effort 
on the part of the teacher, is not fair to other children. 
Especially to the boy or girl of large capacity, who, rather 



300 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

than the slower one, deserves special attention, is the 
effect bad. These children of super-normal ability should 
receive special instruction, be given work up to their capac- 
ities, and be pushed along into the high school as rapidly as 
their maturity will warrant. While the average child needs 
good attention, for such will form the great bulk of our 
citizenship, and the child of less than normal ability needs 
special instruction in special classes, as much for the welfare 
of other children as his own, the really important child 
in the schools — the one most worth while to the future 
state — is the boy or girl who is decidedly quicker, brighter, 
and surer than the average. We have for a long time based 
our instruction on the needs of the "average child," and 
we have recently begun to direct some attention to the 
needs of the child mentally below normal, but so far but 
little attention has been given to the needs of the super- 
normal child, — the child who represents the best asset of 
public education. It is from this class of children we must 
draw our leaders for the future. 

2. Promotional plans 

More frequent promotions. The earliest and most com- 
mon attempts to remedy the conditions arising from courses 
of study not being fully adjusted to individual needs have 
been along the line of increasing the flexibility of the promo- 
tional machinery, thus tending to break up the so-called 
"lock-step" in the public schools. Under the annual-pro- 
motion plan the child who fails of promotion at the end of 
any year must repeat the grade. This is wasteful of both 
the school's time and the child's time, and often has a most 
discouraging effect on the pupil. Similarly, a bright pupil 
cannot easily go forward under an annual system, because 
a whole year must be jumped by so doing. 

In all of our better school systems, even in small cities, 



# 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 301 

annual promotion has now been replaced by semiannual pro- 
motions,^ the grade being divided into two sections, half a 
year apart. In some of our larger city school systems, where 
large buildings permit of such subdivisions, each grade is 
subdivided into four sections, thus insuring classes only ten 
weeks apart, so that failure to advance or the ability to ad- 
vance more rapidly requires a loss or an advance of but one 
fourth of a year, instead of a whole year.^ The semiannual 
promotion plan is now perhaps the most common of all plans, 
while the quarterly promotion plan, if coupled with the 
maintenance of an ungraded room in each building, permits 
of a very flexible promotional scheme, under which, if prop- 
erly handled, pupils may advance at almost any rate. The 
chief difficulty with the quarterly promotion plan is that it 
is not possible in small buildings, or in a small school system. 

The Batavia plan. Under any of these plans, however, 
some pupils will fail to make progress with the group, though 
the quarterly promotional plan naturally presents the fewest 
objections in this respect. The Batavia plan, of which much 
has been said in recent years, is an attempt to overcome 
this difficulty, while retaining the semiannual promotion 
plan for all. 

Figure 21 illustrates the idea. The plan has been in use 
for many years at Batavia, New York, and it was worked 
out there originally not so much as a promotional plan as a 
device to make use of a number of very large classrooms, 
The plan was finally extended to include both elementary 

^ See Report of the Baltimore Commission, pp. 89-90, for a brief state- 
ment as to the advantages of the two-class plan of instruction. For a much 
fuller discussion of the development of more flexible promotional plans, 
see extracts from the Annual Re-ports of Superintendent W. T. Harris, of 
St. Louis, between 1869 and 1875, reproduced in Report of the U.S. Com- 
missioner of Education, 1898-99, i, 302-30. The discussions reproduced 
here are important. 

2 St. Louis has been a pioneer in the establishment and operation of 
such a quarterly plan. 



I 



302 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION 



and high schools. In classes of fifty children or less, it was 
provided that one half of the teacher's time should be free 
from class work, and be devoted to helping the pupils in 
their studies. When classes exceeded fifty, a second teacher 
was put in to assist, recitation work and assisting pupils 
going on simultaneously. ; A decrease in the amount of class 
recitation work and an increase in the amount of pupil 
assistance and directed study are the essential features of 
the plan.^ Figure 21 shows how even progress for all pupils 



Nov. Dec 




May June 

I 



Fig. 21. THE B ATA VIA PLAN 

Showing a half-year's progress for all pupils under this plan. The coaching of the slow 
pupils by the assistant teacher makes this equality of progress possible. 

is maintained. The plan tends to very materially decrease 
retardation and non-promotion, and in this lies its great 
advantage. It probably also tends toward producing aver- 
age results, and in this neglects the interests of the brighter 
pupils, though it might be possible to so use the plan as to 
advance the brighter pupils more rapidly. 

The so-called North Denver plan represents the reverse 
of the Batavia idea, the brighter pupils there, rather than 
the slow ones, being singled out for special help. 

The Pueblo plan. This plan might be considered as a 

development of the Batavia plan, except that instead of 

large classes, small classes and small groups within classes 

are used. It is also equally applicable to high school work. 

Under the best of conditions the plan is as represented in 

* See short descriptive article on, in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education, 
vol. I, p. 331. 



# 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 307 

The essential features of this plan are shown in Figure 26, 
which illustrates the plan as followed for some years at 
Santa Barbara, California. Three parallel courses of instruc- 
tion are provided for the first six grades, each requiring dif- 
ferent amounts of work and intended to be suited to the 
needs of the slow, the average, and the gifted, and so ar- 
ranged as to tend to eliminate non-promotion and retarda- 
tion in these elementary-school grades. Course C includes 
the minimum essentials in the fundamental elementary- 
school subjects which are to be required of all, while each 
of the other courses includes larger amounts of work, or a 
greater enrichment of the instruction, or both. Instead of 
providing only for the average and the gifted, as in the 
Cambridge, Portland, and North Denver plans, this plan 
makes a third group for the slow. Unlike these three plans, 
though, it makes no definite provision for the more rapid 
advancement of the gifted. The important features of 
this plan are the differentiation of courses, the introduc- 
tion of departmental instruction, and the promotion by 
subjects in the last two years of the usual grammar-school 
course. 

The Baltimore experiment. An important modification 
of this differentiated-course plan was introduced into the 
schools of Baltimore by Superintendent Van Sickle. There 
all pupils advanced along the three lines, as shown by 
Figure 26, until the close of the sixth grade. A number 
of the schools continued grade instruction through the 
seventh and eighth grades, then promoting to the high 
school, or the pupils went out into the world at this 
point. At a number of places in the city, however, central 
schools, taught by a departmental plan of instruction and 
with an especially rich curriculum were provided, and to 
these the gifted children (ordinarily Course A pupils), with 
the consent of their parents, were sent for better and 



SOS PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

more rapid instruction. The curriculum for such schools 
was greatly enriched, and was so arranged that a pupil 
might complete the grades seven to ten inclusive in three 
years, thus saving a year of pubhc school life and ena- 
bling the pupil to enter college at seventeen instead of at 
eighteen. 

The Mannheim plan of grading. The Santa Barbara and 
the Baltimore types of differentiated courses for different 
classes of pupils correspond closely with the plan followed, 
since 1899, at Mannheim, a commercial and manufacturing 
city on the Rhine, in Baden, Germany, and which is shown 
in the figure on the opposite page. This plan has attracted 
much attention in Germany. It arose as an attempt to carry 
the pupils through the grades more rapidly, so that more 
might finish the highest grade before the close of the com- 
pulsory school period. 

The plan in its essentials consists of two systems of 
smaller-unit special classes, one known as "furthering 
classes" (B), and the other as "auxihary classes " (C). These 
run parallel to the regular classes of the Volksschule (A), for 
children who show themselves too slow or too weak to do 
the work of the A com-se. About ten per cent of the children 
in the Volksschule in Mannheim are in these "furthering 
classes." In addition, two systems of classes for the more 
gifted are also found, one (P) for those who are to pass to 
the secondary schools at the age of ten, and the other (Sp.) 
for those who are to remain in these peoples* schools. The 
object of these differentiations in courses, as explained by the 
superintendent of the Mannheim schools, is "to carry for- 
ward on a level, through the same course of study and within 
the compulsory school age, from six to fourteen, all children 
obliged by law to attend the folk-schools." 



t t 
Sp.vn| vn|~"--t-x5| 

1 t ~~^ 
Sp.vi| viW "--a:,vrl\ I L\at 

P ni| in|j-5,m| a mj 

^. V. CLASS ORa^^^A™. OK^THK V0LK8BCHULK AT 

A. Regular classes, constituting eight grades 
fi^^_ -S^*^® <^^^^^« ^0^ gifted pupilB. * 
oPJ"— i:'reparatory language classes. 

, feature IfT jUnheim Jyeim ' "' " "'" ^"«"=' '"^ •J"«nguUhi. j 

n ^ — .^."rthering classes for slow pupils. 
C. Auxiliary classes for mentally defective pupils. 
A __ Auxiliary classes. ^ 

A P = Preparatory class. 
I = Institution for idiots and imbeciles. 

^ ^^ Destination of regularly promoted pupils. 

fn,-Ki^»v r* Destination of demoted Dunils 

The W«=ta r,p„«atmg .h, different grades .leo ?^pCsent . echoo>year In .tae 
1 = Idiot Asylum. 
G r= Gymnasium \ 
Rg = Realgymnasium ( Higher 
O = Oberrealschule (Schools. 
K = Reformschule ' 

(From a German school report.) 



310 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

S. Differentiations in school work 
New types of schools. In addition to the differentiations 
in courses shown in Figure 26, which attempt to provide for 
the needs of the normal pupil, many of our cities have also 
created new types of schools for the instruction of certain 
special classes of children who, for one reason or another, 
are not likely to partake advantageously of the instruction 
provided in the regular classrooms for ordinary children. 
The need of such classes is often dictated just as much by 
reasons of economy in the instruction of normal pupils as by 
the needs of the special classes taught. A mere enumera- 
tion of the more important of these is all that can be 
attempted here.^ 

1. Non-English speaking. For children and youths of normal 
ability but who, because of foreign birth, have not a com- 
mand of the English language. Often subdivided on an age 
basis. 

2. Supplementary classes. For "left-overs," who are organized 
into special classes and taught separately, and are admitted 
to the high school as such, though they have not completed 
the elementary-school course. Sometimes called Transfer 
classes.'^ 

3. Over-age classes. For those markedly over-age in the grades, 
to bring up their deficiencies and to adapt the work better to 
their needs. 

Jf. Ungraded classes. For elementary-school pupUs who, for any 
reason, are at a disadvantage in the grades, or who need extra 
help to enable them to step forward into a more advanced 
class. 

^ For a more detailed description of the most of these special-type 
schools, see Van Sickle, Witmer, and Ayres, chap, vii, or the volmne by 
Holmes. Also see special articles in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Education. 
The article bj'^ Heeter describes those schools established in Pittsburg, and 
that by Christensen those in Salt Lake City. 

2 See Bridging the Gap ; ihe Transfer Class. Harvard-Newton Bulletins, 
no. in. (1915.) A study of such classes in the Newton, Massachusetts, 
schools. 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 311 

5. Vacation schools. For the education of children during the 
summer vacation, along somewhat different lines from the 
regular instruction of the school year, together with special 
classes for children who desire to make up back work or to 
move forward more rapidly. 

6. Disciplinary classes. For refractory children of either sex, in 
part to relieve the regular classroom of these troublesome 
cases, and in part to adjust work and discipline to the needs 
of such children. 

7. Parental schools. For incorrigibles and confirmed truants; for 
those not capable of being handled in the regular school or 
in 6. (See pages 367-69 for further description.) 

8. Open-air classes. For tubercular and anaemic children. 

9. Schools for crippled children. Special instruction in small 
classes, adapted to the needs and possibilities of crippled 
children, and without reference to the regular courses of 
instruction. (See book by Reeves.) 

10. Classes for children with special defects. For stammerers and 
stutterers, to correct speech defects. The teacher may travel 
from school to school, giving instruction to such children, 
instead of the children being collected in a special school. 

11. Classes for the oral instruction of deaf children. Special small 
classes with specially trained teachers, to enable such children 
to learn to speak and to read the lips. 

12. Classes for blind children. Special instruction, adapted to the 
needs and possibilities of blind children. 

13. Classes for sub-normal children. Special instruction, suited to 
the needs and possibilities of children deficient in mental 
capacity, but capable of sufficient education to make them 
self-supporting, and of training in habits and physical control. 

14' Classes for epileptic children. Special part-time classes for 
educable epileptics. 

15. Special classes for gifted children. Usually some form of the 
Baltimore plan, by which special classes for gifted children 
are formed, to enable them to progress more rapidly. 

16. Industrial classes.'^ A recent development, and one promising 

^ The field of indusirial and trade education represents a large recent 
development of public education, which it is not possible to consider in any 
detail in the space of such a book as this. Leavitt gives many excellent 
examples of industrial schools, and Snedden states well the argument for 
such work as a part of the public school system. Cole and Draper are also 
good on this point. 



312 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

much for the future. Either special courses running through 
the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, as shown in Figure 
26, or special classes for children in certain parts of cities, 
and substituting industrial work for some of the regular in- 
struction of the school. Some of these have been organized 
as part-time industrial schools, and some as continuation 
schools after the eighth grade. The future is practically cer- 
tain to see a large development in this type of school. 

17. Trade schools. Of secondary grade, for instruction in the 
fundamentals underlying the practice of the more common 
trades and occupations for both sexes. 

18. Special art schools. Centers where pupils who show special 
aptitude for drawing may receive special instruction under 
specially capable teachers. 

19. Evening schools. These exist in many cities, and are very 
useful for extension and industrial instruction and for teach- 
ing the use of the English tongue to older pupils. 

20. Adult instruction. As yet but little developed, but likely in 
the future to become an important part of our educational 
service. 

21. Home schools. Schools for girls of upper grammar-school age, 
and designed to give special preparation for home-keeping. 
These are special schools, in residences, and are in a way a 
further development of the domestic-science instruction. 

22. Neighborhood schools. Schools organized to study and meet 
the needs of both pupils and parents, considering their hered- 
ity, experiences, environments, and material and spiritual 
needs. 1 

Jf,. Fundamental reorganizations 

Reorganizing the upper grades. Figure 26 shows a type 
of reorganization of the upper grades which has become 
quite common in the western part of the United States. 
This consists of abolishing grade instruction in the seventh 
and eighth grades, and taking the ninth grade out of the 
high school, and then combining these three grades in a 
separate building and designating the new school as an 

* For a good description of such a school, see the Report of the Portland 
School Survey, chap, xi, pp. 274-78. 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 313 

intermediate school or an intermediate high school. A num- 
ber of more or less different and divergent courses, such as 
literary, academic, business, manual training, household 
arts, and pre vocational, are offered; instruction is conducted 
by the departmental plan; the teachers represent some 
degree of special preparation, usually being college gradu- 
ates; the equipment resembles a high school in kind; and 
promotion is by subject instead of by grade. 

Marked progress in improving the work in the primary 
school has been made during the past one or two decades, 
but the upper grades of the grammar school have usually 
represented the least progressive part of the whole school 
system.^ This reorganization of the work of the upper 
grades attempts not only to remedy this long-standing de- 
fect, but, by providing for a more natural transition, to 
reduce the mortality in the first year of the high school as 
well. 

Theory of the intermediate school. The theory underlying 
the intermediate school is that the upper grammar-school 
grades, if properly taught, require such a degree of prepara- 
tion that grade instruction cannot be efficient; that the 
grade-teacher system can and does take little account 
of the gradual differentiation in tastes and capacities and in 
the future needs of children which takes place after about the 
age of twelve; that the grade-teacher system makes no real 
preparation for beginning high-school work, with a resulting 
heavy mortality in the ninth grade; that the rational time 
for an important change in the school life is when the pupil 
is leaving childhood ; and that the period of early adolescence 
calls for a different type of treatment from that provided by 
the usual grade instruction. 

The great argument for the intermediate school, however, 

* The article by C. W. Eliot, cited in the references of the preceding 
chapter, is good on this point. 



314 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

lies in the resulting improvement in the quality of instruc- 
tion and in the adaptations to individual capacities and 
needs which result from the pro\asion of intermediate-school 
training.^ It offers to pupils the advantages of departmental 
school work; it offers the possibility of options, in the matter 
ol both studies and courses; it permits of the adaptation of 
instruction to the needs of both sexes; it tends to postpone 
for a year the age of leaving school; and it offers opportuni- 
ties for the development of a type of vocational work not 
possible under the present plan of grade-school organiza- 
tion.^ 

A reorganized and expanded school system. This type 
of reorganization in the upper grades almost of necessity 
forces a greater expansion in the secondary-school curricu- 
lum of the city. Wherever introduced there has been a 
marked gain in numbers, not only in those continuing 
through the grades, but in those entering the high school as 
well. New provisions for secondary education usually have 
had to be made, and, in a number of Western cities, the 
demand has come for an expansion of the high school up- 
ward, as well as outward. The city of Los Angeles repre- 
sents a good example of a city which has experienced the 
results of such a reorganization of its instruction, and a 
number of California cities have experienced a similar ex- 
pansion. The Los Angeles school system is now organized 
as follows : — 

1. Kindergartens — one and a half years. 

2. Elementary schools — six years — grade instruction. 

^ See the Report of the National Education Association Committee on 
Economy of Time in Education, Bulletin no. 38, 1913, U.S. Bureau of 
Education, pp. 23-25, for a good statement of the arguments for a reor- 
ganization of elementary education after the idea here presented. 

2 Holmes gives a diagram on page 157 of part i of his book, showing the 
differentiations in the school system of New Britain, Connecticut, and the 
life career to which the instruction leads, which will be interesting to look 
up at this point. 



Iieinist 



^ Physician. 
i--^^entis.t 

"""---^■vTeacher 
--^^^ngineer 

mr"' \iffnr \itM 

OKMAL COLLEGl 

3HOOI- &UNIVERS 

A ^ *♦ 



^^--r" 



TECHNICAL 

INSTITUTE 



Decorator 
Artist 
Designer 
Engraver 
Illustrator 
Lithographer 
Sculptor 
Sign Painter 
Craftswork 



Silversmith. 
Jeweler 
Printer 




Nursery Attendant 
Professional Housekeepej 
Catering 
Nursing 
Cooking 
Sewing 
Millinery 
Di:essjnaking 
Seamstress 
Salesmanship 
Home-Makingf^ 



UnaMigned 1 

for hidWdual help 

This diagram represents the Newton school 
system as it has been developed since 1905. This 
development has been inspired and directed by 
the idea that "it is the function of the school to 
educate every boy and every girl, to eUminate 
none, to accept all. It fits work and method to 
individual needs, and strives to send children out 
of school just as individually diverse as nature 
designed them to be, and as the diversity of serv- 
ice which awaits them requires." 



Illustrator 
■Lithographer 
Sculptor 
Sign Painter 
Craftswork 




Chemist 
Minister^-^ 
la^vyer •r\\ 
Architect -^'^l^-'*'- 



Carpenter 
Cabinet Maker 
PatternMaker 
Machinist 
Foundi-yman 
Electrician 
Wheelwright 
Carriage Buildec 
Draughtsman 
Sheet Metal, 
Automobile 
Contractoi 
Boat. Builde^ 
Steam Fitter ' 



Nursery Attendant 
Professional Housekeeping 
Catering 
Nursing 
Cooking 
Sewing 
Millinery- 
Dressmaking 
Seamstress 



Stenographe 
Business Manager 
Travelling Salesman. ■ 
Bookkeeper , 
Banking 
Typewriting 
Civil Service ^ 



Home -Making 



fJ^^il'*' 'Stained, and educated 

fitted by oatural endowment and interest 

i-uiicem tnr th^ „. 1 material thus forced to 



Newton, Mass., School Report 




tne laea tnac "it is tne tunctiou of 

educate every boy and every girl, 

none, to accept all. It fits work and method 
individual needs, and strives to send children o 
of school just as individually diverse i 

designed them to be, — ■* "" **'" ''' " 

ice which awaits them 



ividuauy aiverse aa na 
and as the diversity of t 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 315 

8. Intermediate schools — three years — departmental instruc- 
tion — five different courses provided. 

4. A number of special-type schools, such as ungraded rooms, 
over-age classes, disciplinary classes, parental schools, schools 
for the deaf, classes for sub-normal children, evening schools, 
and neighborhood schools. 

5. Eight high schools, some cosmopolitan and some specialized. 
High school courses proper cover three years. 

6. Junior college work ^ in certain high schools, offering the 
freshman and sophomore years of instruction for all children 
in the city. 

A reorganized and redirected school system. The schools 
at Newton, Massachusetts, offer an excellent example of a 
reorganized and redirected school system, the fundamental 
idea kept in mind here being to offer an education suited to 
the needs and future prospects of every educable child in 
the community. Instead of continuing to offer a traditional 
type of elementary and secondary school instruction, of 
which those who found it of use to them could partake, the 
community finally committed itself to the thoroughly sound 
and thoroughly just principle that every child of school age 
in the community should be offered an education of a kind 
that would best suit his educational needs and future pros- 
pects. 

Having become committed to the idea of educating prop- 
erly all boys and girls in the community, the school authori- 
ties began the establishment of schools, classes, and courses 
of such a nature that every boy and girl might be provided 
with an education of such a type as each could use to 
greatest advantage. The fact that different educational 
treatment was required to deal successfully with different 
types of boys and girls, and to prepare for the different voca- 
tions and professions, it was felt furnished no reasonable 
ground for discrimination between children, and especially 

1 See an interesting article in the School Review, vol. 23, pp. 465-73 
(September, 1915), on "The Junior College in California." 



316 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



according to the usual plan of saying that those who can be 
educated the traditional way shall be educated, while those 
who cannot take that kind of education will have to go 
without any. 

The chart showing the school system as it was up to 1905, 
and the reorganizations effected since that time, explains 
the reorganization and redirection of this school system.^ 
Such a reorganization and redirection is in harmony with 
all sound educational theory as to individual differences, and 

1898 '99 '00 •01 '02 '03 »04 '05 »06 '07 '08 '09 '10 ^1 *12. 

\«, , , , , , , , — — , , 1 , , , , 





























_^ 


























y 


y^ 


























/" 




















































» 


V 


























/^ 




























^ 


























.^^ 








^ 


















^ 










<^ 
















V 






__„ 


Tfjpv S 


CHOO 














,o^> 






l-^t*? 


-^'-cowPu>- 
























ly 


- — 1.' 


f/t^ 




















^ 


^,* 


'pu'p^v. 


L Bt^ 




















^' 


^»»' 






















^ 




^y 
























/ 


^'•- 


" 

























80% 

75% 
70% 
65% 
60% 
55% 
50% 
45% 
40% 
35% 
30% 
25% 
20% 
15% 
10 ji 

6% 

0-J< 

Pi0. 29. RESULT OF THE REDIRECTION OF THE NEWTON SCHOOLS 

Showing the percentage of increase each year, compared with 1898, in the 
nunoiber of pupils over fourteen — voluntary attendants — and of pupils between 
seven and fourteen — the compulsory school age. The marked gain in increase 
of voluntary attendants since 1907 is the result of the school policy to educate 
as many as possible of the youth of the city. The unusual increase of seven- 
to fourteen-year old pupils in 1912 was due to an influx of 200 children from 
the Parochial School, few of whom were over fourteen. 



all political theory as to the rights of individuals to partake 
of the advantages of public education, and represents one 
of the most significant attempts so far made to break up the 
aristocratic theory of education and to substitute in its place 

* C. S. Meek, in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, 
pp. 172-78, describes the reorganization and expansion of the high-school 
work of Boise, Idaho, and shows a somewhat similar adaptation of school 
work to local community needs. 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 317 

a truly democratic one. The community efficiency of such 
a school system is greatly increased by such an expansion of 
effort, and, in consequence, its maintenance costs must ma- 
terially rise. 

The Gary plan. A still more fundamental reorganization, 
or rather a construction along new lines from the bottom 
upward, is represented by the school system recently built 
up at Gary, Indiana. This represents one of the most origi- 
nal pieces of constructive work ever attempted in American 
education. The essential idea underlying the plan is *' the use 
of all the educational opportunities of the city, all the time, 
for all the people, and in a way which reveals to young and 
old that what they are doing is worth while." 

The schools run on a four-quarter plan, each quarter of 
twelve weeks' duration; the school plant is a playground, 
garden, workshop, social center, library, and a traditional- 
type school all combined in one; the elementary-school and 
the high-school work are both given under the same roof; 
some of the high-school subjects begin as early as the fifth 
grade; specialization in the instruction and, in consequence* 
departmental instruction run through the schools; classes 
in the special outdoor activities and shop work are carried 
on at the same time as indoor classes, thus doubling the 
capacity of the school plant; the school day is eight hours 
long, with the school plant open also all day Saturday; con- 
tinuation schools and social and recreational centers are 
conducted in the same plant in the evenings; and play and 
vocational work are important features of the instruction in 
all schools. Each school is, in effect, a world in itself, busily 
engaged in the work and play and government of the world, 
and so well do such activities and a highly flexible curriculum 
meet the needs of all classes that the need for most of the 
promotional machinery and special-type classes and schools 
is here eliminated. 



318 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

The Gary plan calls for good organizations, along lines 
which school men are not commonly either familiar with 
or capable of; large executive capacity, imagination, and 
clear insight into community needs; teachers of a differ- 
ent type, chiefly in attitude and adaptability; a different 
type of school plant; and courses of instruction far removed 
from the knowledge conception of education. Whether or 
not the Gary idea will, in time, become the common type 
one cannot now say, but the plan is one with which all 
school men should become familiar, and one which could be 
advantageously experimented with in many of our cities. 
The plan as carried out at Gary certainly represents a type 
of social service of which few school systems as at present 
organized are capable. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Why does a system of term promotions, based on written examina- 
tions, always tend to increase the retardation in the schools? 

2. Which form of written examination will tend to increase the retarda- 
tion most, one where the questions are made out in each school, or 
one where the questions are uniform for the entire city? Why? 

3. Schoolmasters frequently argue that schools which have a very low 
percentage of retardation do not maintain standards in making pro- 
motions. What is the value of this argument? 

4. Do you agree with the argument about the importance of caring for 
the gifted child? If not, why not? 

5. Do you see any relation between size of class and retardation? 

6. Why has mass education been a natural development of our political 
theory as to human equality? 

7. How large buildings or school system would one need to institute the 
quarterly promotion plan? 

8. Could a half-yearly promotion plan be introduced in any city? 

9. What are the chief advantages and disadvantages of the Baltimore 
plan? Is it inapplicable in most school systems? 

10. Why is the Pueblo plan a difficult one to carry out? Is it sound 
educationally? 

11. What are the merits and defects of the Cambridge plan? 

12. What are the merits and defects of the differentiated-course plan? 

13. What would a promotional rate of ninety per cent mean in a large 
city school system, having ten thousand elementary-school pupils? 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 319 

14. Would a measure of the effectiveness of a school be the extent to 
which it eliminates non-promotion? If not, under what conditions 
would it be a good measure? 

15. Are any of the special-type schools enumerated in section 3 of this 
chapter, in your judgment, not within the proper function of public 
education? Would you add any others to the list; if so, what ones, 
and why? 

16. What is meant by departmental instruction? In what grades do you 
think such instruction would prove most advantageous? State the 
arguments for and against the departmental organization for the 
upper grammar-school grades. 

17. Is the intermediate-school organization better than the departmental 
plan? If so, what is its particular poinrf: of advantage? 

18. What is the advantage of promotion by subjects, after the sixth grade? 

19. What is your judgment, after reading Snedden's address and Bagley's 
reply, on the distinctions between liberal and vocational education? 

20. What is your judgment, after reading Bobbit, Bourne, Burris, and 
Snedden, on the Gary plan? 

21. How far does the form of organization of instruction described by 
Brown approach the Pueblo plan? The Gary plan? 

22. Do all improvements in the educational system mean the expenditure 
of more money for education? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Get age- and grade-distribution sheets for a number of school sys- 
tems, and see what is the percentage of acceleration and retardation 
in each. 

2. Compare the age- and grade-distribution in such cities with the com- 
pulsory age limits, and see if the attendance curves fall off markedly 
after the close of the compulsory period. 

3. Take two school systems, one of which provides a traditional curric- 
ulum, and the other of which has a rich and varied curriculum, and 
make a chart comparing the two, for a number of years, in percent- 
ages of pupils in school after the close of the compulsory school period. 

4. Draw up the promotional scheme that, in your judgment, is best 
adapted to the needs of a city of 10,000 inhabitants. What types of 
special schools would you think desirable as an adjunct to such a 
city system? 

5. Assume that you desire to urge upon your board the advisability of 
introducing, as a part of the city school system, any one of the 
twenty-two types of special school enumerated under section 3. 
Draw up a report and recommendation to them for such a school, 
stating need for, giving the educational argument for such, and esti- 
mating the probable cost. 

6. Suppose that the school system does not include kindergartens, op 



320 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

that you desire their introduction. Draw up a report for your board 
giving the reasons for your recommendation, plans for their intro- 
duction, and estimates of probable costs. 

7. Draw up a report, in a similar manner, favoring a reorganization of 
the school system to provide for intermediate schools, with differ- 
entiated courses. 

8. Calculate the saving for a school system of four sixteen-room grade 
buildings, employing four special supervisors and ten special teachers, 
by reorganizing it according to the plan described by Brown, in the 
third part of his paper, by means of which departmental instruction 
and all-teachers-speciaUsts are substituted for the typical grade 
organization. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

.?. Retardation and promotion. 

Ayres, L. P. Laggards in the School. 236 pp. Charities Publ. Committee, 
New York, 1909. 

A valuable study of retardation and elimination of pupils. 

Bachman, F. P. Problems in Elementary School Administration. 274 pp. 
World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1915. 

An important study of intermediate schools, their educational value and economic 
efficiency; together with a very full discussion of the question of promotion and 
non-promotion of pupils. An authoritative work on the progress and classification of 
pupils. 

Blan, L. B. A Special Study of the Incidence of Retardation. Ill pp. 
Trs. Col. Contribs. to Educ, no. 40. New York, 1911. 

A critical review of previous studies, and a detailed study of four New Jersey 
cities and one district in New York City. 

Bobbitt, J. F. "The Elimination of Waste in Education"; in Elemen- 
tary-School Teacher, vol. 12, pp. 259-71. (February, 1912.) 

Describes the Gary, Indiana, school system, where retardation has been reduced 
to a minimum by reason of the new type of instruction provided. 

Dynes, J. J. "Relation of Retardation to Elimination of Students from 
the High School"; in School Review, vol. 22, pp. 396-406. (June, 1914.) 
A good study of high-school eliminations, by classes and by subjects. 
Elson, W. H. "Waste and EfBciency in School Studies"; in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1912, pp. 335-43. 

A good article on retardation, promotion, and the elimination of waste, with par- 
ticular reference to the Cleveland schools. 

Ewing, E. F. "Retardation and Elimination in Public Schools"; in 
Educational Review, vol. 46, pp. 252-72. (October, 1913.) 

A comparative study of two cities, and a good discussion of the problems involved. 
Faulkner, R. P. "Retardation; its Significance and Requirements"; in 
Educanonal Review, vol. 38, pp. 122-31. (September, 1909.) 

A good short article on the general prevalence of retardation in the schools of the 
United States. 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 321 

Greenwood, J. M. "Miring in the Grades and the Promotion of Pupils"; 
in Educational Review, vol. 36, pp. 139-61. (September, 1908.) 
A series of tables aad statistical data showing conditions in a number of cities. 
Hartwell, C. H. "Grading and Promotion of Pupils"; in Educational 
Review, vol. 40, pp. 375-86. (November, 1910.) Also in Proceedings of 
National Education Association, 1910, pp. 294-300; discussion, pp. 
300-06. 

A very good discussion of the whole subject. Gives a digest of the New York City 
Teachers' Association's investigation of plans in use. 

Holmes, W. H. School Organization and the Individual Child. 197+ 
211 pp. The Davis Press, Worcester, 1912. 

Part I describes plans for handling normal children, and Part II, sub-normal chil- 
dren. An important volume. 

Holmes, W. H. "Plans of ClassiiScation in the Public Schools"; in 
Pedagogical Seminary, vol. 18, pp. 475-522. (December, 1911.) 
Describes and compares plans in use in the United States and in Germany. 
Keyes, C. H. Progress through the Grades of City Schools. 79 pp. Trs. 
Col. Contribs. to Educ, no. 42, New York, 1911. 
A study of acceleration and arrest. 
Phillips, D. E. "The Child vs. Promotion-Machinery"; in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1912, pp. 349-55. 
An argument on the child side of the question. 
Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of the Survey of the School System. 324 
pp. 1915. 

Chapter IX, on the progress of children through the schools, deals with both re- 
tardation and the means employed to reduce the same. 

Search, P. W. "Individual Teaching; the Pueblo Plan"; in Educational 
Review, vol. 7, pp. 154-70. (February, 1894.) 
Describes the plan as it was followed at Pueblo, Colorado. 
Sheldon, W. D. "A Neglected Cause of Retardation"; in Educational 
Review, vol. 40, pp. 121-31. (September, 1910.) 

Claims that large primary^school classes are responsible for many a retarded child. 
Spaulding, F. E. "The Unassigned Teacher in the Schools"; in School 
Review, vol. 15, pp. 201-16. (March, 1907.) 

Describes the work of such a teacher in the schools of Newton, Mass. 
Strayer, G. D., and Thorndike, E. L. Educational Administration; 
Quantitative Studies. 391 pp. Macmillan Co., New York, 1913. 

Part I reproduces a number of valuable studies of elimination, retardation, and 
acceleration in school systems, with many statistical tables. 

Thorndike, E. L. The Elimination of Pupils from School. 60 pp. Bul- 
letin no. 4, 1907, U.S. Bureau of Education. 

A statistical study of elimination in American cities, with many diagrams. An im- 
portant study. 

U.S. Commissioner of Education. " Classification and Promotion of 
Pupils"; in Annual Report, 1898-99, r, pp. 302-56. 
A series of good extracts from official reports, describing the development of th« 



322 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

short-interval system in St. Louis (1869-74); the Elizabeth, New Jersey plan: tb? 
Seattle plan: the North Denver plan: and the old Cambridge plan. 

Van Denburg, J. K. Causes of the Elimination of Students in Public 
Secondary Schools in New York City. 205 pp. Trs. Col. Contribs. to 
Educ, no. 47, New York, 1911. 

A statistical study of elimination in one group of schools. 

Van Sickle, J. H., and Shearer, W. J. "Grading and Promotion with 
Reference to the Individual Needs of Pupils"; in Proceedings of Na- 
tional Education Association, 1898, pp. 434-48. 

Two papers, the first describing the North Denver plan, and the other the Eliza- 
beth plan. 

Van Sickle, J. H., Witmer, L., and Ayres, L. P. Provisions for Exceptional 
Children in Public Schools. 92 pp. Bulletin no. 4, 1911, U.S. Bureau 
of Education. 

A very valuable document, classifying exceptional children and describing work 
done for them in thirty-nine American cities. . 

S. Differentiations and reorganizations. 

Bonser, Fr. E. " Democratizing Secondary Education by the Six-Three- 
Three Plan"; in Educational Administration and Supervision, vol. 
I, pp. 567-76 (November, 1915). 
A good descriptive article. 
Brown, S. W. "Some Experiments in Elementary-School Organization"; 
in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, pp. 458-63. 

A valuable paper, discussing requirements and flexibility in the elementary-school 
curriculum: promotion by subjects instead of by grades; and the advantages of de- 
partmental instruction throughout the elementary school. 

Bourne, Randolph S. The Gary Schools. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 
1916. 200 pp.; illustrated. 

A well-rounded description of the work and of the principles of organization, 
management, and finance which have been worked out by Superintendent Wirt in 
Gary and in other places under his direction. 

Bums, W. P. The Public School System of Gary, Indiana. Bulletin no. 
18, 1914, U.S. Commissioner of Education, 49 pp.; illustrated. 

A good and an easily available description of the work at Gary, giving programs, 
time schedules, building plans, and illustrations of the work done. 

Christensen, D. H. "Some Adjustments and Changes in the Course of 
Study and School Organization suggested by the Needs and the 
Capacities of the Children that vary from the Standards set for 
Average Pupils"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 
1912, pp. 335-68. 

A good description of the work done in the Salt Lake City schools in introducing 
the intermediate school and the ungraded class, and instruction for backward chil- 
dren. 

Cole, p. R. Industrial Education in the Elementary School. 64 pp. 
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1914. Riverside Educational Mono- 
graph Series. 
The problem, and the necessary reconstructions in the curriculum and in method. 



ADJUSTMENTS AND DIFFERENTIATIONS 323 

Draper, A. S. "The Adaptation of Schools to Industry and Efficiency "; 
in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1908, pp. 65-78. 

A good article on elementary-school waste, and the lack of balance and adapta- 
tion to national needs of elementary-school programs of study. 

Francis, J. H. " A Reorganization of Our School System"; in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1913, pp. 368-76. 

A good brief description of the divisions into which the Los Angeles schools have 
been reorganized, and the scope and purposes of each. 

Heeter, S. L. "Differentiation in the Courses of Study for Children 
between Twelve and Sixteen Years of Age "; in Proceedings of National 
Education Association, 1913, pp. 292-96. 

Describes the new types of schools introduced at Pittsburg, — ungraded room, 
schools for weak-minded, schools for foreign children, open-air schools, elementary 
industrial schools, and the short-course high school. 

Kilpatrick, V. E. Departmental Teaching in Elementary Schools. 130 pp. 
Macmillan Co., New York, 1908. 

A good presentation of the arguments for and against, with plans. 
Leavitt, F. M. Examples of Industrial Education. 330 pp. Ginn & Co., 
Boston, 1912. 

A valuable book, giving many examples of industrial work in different parts of the 
United States. 
Maxwell, W. H. A Quarter Century of Public School Development. 417 
pp. American Book Co., New York, 1912. 

A series of extracts, from Superintendent Maxwell's published reports, of which 
the following relate to the subject-matter of this chapter: — 

18. Schools for defective children, pp. 203-13. 

19. Truant schools, pp. 214-16. 

20. Summer schools and playgrounds, pp. 217-22. 

21. Continuation vs. evening schools, pp. 223-25. 

23. Departmental teaching in elementary schools, pp. 229-37. 

Portland, Oregon. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. 
(1913.) 441 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 
1915. 

Part II, "Instructional Needs," outlines a plan for the educational reorganization 
of the city. 

Reeves, Edith. Care and Education of Crippled Children in the United 
States. 252 pp. Survey Associates, Inc., New York, 1914. 
A carefully prepared and well-illustrated volume on the subject. 
Snedden, D. Problems of Educational Readjustment. 259 pp. Houghton 
Mifflin Co., Boston, 1914. 

A series of ten essays relating to instruction, and presenting the spirit of the modern 
demands on the school. The first, on "New Education and Educational Readjust- 
ment," and the sixth, on "Differentiated Programs of Study for Older Children if 
Elementary Schools," bear in particular on the subject-matter of this chapter. 

Snedden, D. "Fundamental Distinctions between Liberal and Voca- 
tional Education"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 
1914, pp. 150-61. Opposite point of view presented by W. C. Bagley, 
pp. 161-70. 

A good presentation of the vocational-education question. Snedden lays dowB 
thirteen important theses on the question of vocational education. 



SU PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Snedden, D. "The Gary System; Its Pros and Cons for Other 
Cities ** ; in Educational Administration and Supervision, vol. i, pp. 
362-74. (June, 1915.) Also in Proceedings of National Education As- 
sociation, 1915. 

Springfield, 111. Survey of the Public Schools. 152 pp. Russell Sage 
Foundation, New York, 1914. 

Chapter XIII, on "Vocational Education," and Chapter XIV, on "Educa- 
tional Extension," are good on the need of an extension of the school's work. 

Thompson, F. W. " Equalizing Educational Opportunity "; in Educa- 
tional Administration and Supervision, vol. i, pp. 453-64. (Septem- 
ber, 1915.) 
A very good general article on needed readjustments in work and expenditures to 
make our school systems more democratic. 

Trowbridge, Ada W. The Home School. 98 pp. Houghton Mifflin Co., 
Boston, 1913. 

A very interesting description of a school for training in home arts, established in 
comiection with the public schools of Providence, B.I. 



CHAPTER XIX 

EFFICIENCY EXPERTS: TESTING RESULTS 

A new movement. Wholly within the past decade one 
of the most significant movements in all of our educational 
history has arisen. Almost everything which has been con- 
sidered in the two preceding chapters is dependent on the 
further development of this movement. The movement is 
as yet only in its infancy, but so important is it in terms of 
the future of administrative service that it bids fair to 
change, in the course of time, the whole character of school 
administration. The numerous surveys of city school sys- 
tems which have been made within the past five years, the 
frequent discussions of the question of standards in educa- 
tional meetings, and the labors of many workers in attempt- 
ing to evolve tentative standards for measurement and 
units of accomplishment, are all manifestations of this new 
movement. The movement indicates the growth not only 
of a professional consciousness as to the need of some 
quantitative units of measurement, but also, to a limited 
extent, of a public demand for a more intelligent accounting 
by school officers for the money expended for public educa- 
tion.^ 

Meaning of the movement. The significance of this new 

movement is large, for it means nothing less than the 

1 "New York City spent last year nearly $35,000,000 for education, and 
hardly a dollar of it was spent for measuring results. Are educators sup- 
posed to be such experts that their methods cannot be improved? Lately 
we have had a striking demonstration of what experimental science can do 
by reducing the motions in laying brick and the fatigue in handhng pig 
iron. It can hardly be pretended that scientific efl5ciency is of less conse- 
quence in the schools." (Editorial in the Springfield Republican, 1912.) 



326 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

idtiinate changing of school administration from guesswork 
to scientific accuracy; the ehmination of favoritism and 
politics completely from the work; the ending forever of the 
day when a book-publishing company or a personal or 
political enemy of the superintendent can secure his re- 
moval, without regard to the efficiency of the school system 
he has built up; the substitution of professional experts for 
the old and successful practitioners; and the changing of 
school supervision from a temporary or a political job, for 
which little or no technical preparation need be made, to 
that of a highly skilled piece of professional social engi- 
neering.^ 

The movement is of such large potential importance that 
any young man of to-day who desires to prepare for school 
administration in the future should by all means thoroughly 
familiarize himself with the aims and methods of this new 
phase of administrative service.^ 

The scientific purpose. The scientific purpose of the 
movement has been to create some standards of measure- 
ment and units of accomplishment which may be applied to 

* School administration, in respect to training and professional prepa- 
ration, has been until quite recently about the most backward of all the 
learned professions, being in much the same position the army was be- 
fore the establishment of West Point, the navy before Annapolis, medicine 
and surgery before the days of medical schools, all constructional and engi- 
neering undertakings before the establishment of engineering schools, and 
when an attorney-at-law was a man of some eloquence who had served a 
certain apprenticeship in a law office and in the justice's court. Our 
successful city superintendents have been to a very large extent the Israel 
Putnams and the Paul Joneses of the work. In the past, when each was 
blazing his otvti trail, this answered very well; in the futm-e, when we shall 
have accumulated a common body of scientific knowledge relating to the 
work, it will not do at all. 

2 In another book in this series, dealing with the organization and ad- 
ministration of a school, it is the intention to go into some detail in the 
explanation of the type of scientific preparation which should be made, 
and the nature of the service which may be rendered; here we shall only 
sketch the work in large outline, and point out its probable future signifi- 



TESTING RESULTS 327 

school systems, to individual schools or classes, or to pupils, 
to determine the efficiency of the work being done, and of 
substituting these for that personal opinion which has, in 
the past, constituted almost the only standard of measure- 
ment of educational procedure. The efficiency or ineffi- 
ciency of teachers, principals, and superintendent, and of 
courses of instruction, have for long been measured by such 
personal standards, in which the opinions of laymen have 
often been of quite as much value as the opinions of school 
men. The importance of the work done in the schools and 
the value of their output have also been subject to the same 
standards of personal opinion. The school, too, and not the 
world outside, has framed the specifications for the training 
of its graduates, and these have been based wholly on per- 
sonal opinions as to needs held by schoolmasters. When 
laymen on school boards have broken in, and have dismissed 
teachers and superintendents or altered courses of study, the 
intrusion has naturally been resented without any one being 
able really to prove that such an intrusion was unjustified. 

In other words, the school, the most important under- 
taking of any community, has stood isolated in the com- 
munity, unable to prove that what it was doing was the 
best possible, and unable to speak to the community of its 
accomplishments in a language which the community could 
easily understand. Instead, we have asked the community 
to accept on faith our statements that what we are doing 
is of very great importance, and that we are doing it very 
well. The result has been an isolation of the school which 
has defeated some of its best efforts. 

The actuating purpose of this new movement for the estab- 
lishment of standards of measurement and units of accom- 
plishment has been that of removing the school from its 
isolation in the community; of enabling it to prove the im- 
portance of what it is doing by making it possible for it to 



828 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADlVnNISTRATION 

speak a language which the community can understand; and 
of making possible the measurement of its efficiency, or the 
efficiency of indi^-iduals in the school system, in terms of 
estabhshed units and standards. In other words, the pur- 
pose has been to change school supervision from the ranks 
of an occupation to that of a profession, — from a job depend- 
ent upon political and personal favors to a scientific service 
capable of self-defense in terms of accepted standards and 
units of accomplishment. The movement for the creation 
of scientific standards of measurement and units of accom- 
plishment is a movement of vast importance to the future of 
the work of school administration, and one which bids fair 
to change its entire character. In another decade or two 
we shall probably need to rewrite our books on school ad- 
ministration in terms of this new scientific development. 

Measurement by comparison. Up to very recently the 
only measure of accomplishment we have had, in advance 
of measurement by personal opinion, has been that of 
measurement by comparison. To learn something about 
costs for education we have compared costs for different 
items in one school system with similar costs in cities of 
approximately the same size; courses of instruction have 
been evaluated in terms of work offered and time devoted 
to the different studies in other cities; enrollment, attend- 
ance, and promotional averages have been compared with 
enrollment, attendance, and promotional averages else- 
where; and the pro\'ision of special supervision or the 
demands made on teachers have been measured in terms 
of what other similar cities pro\dde or require. 

Such a plan has many merits, as it serves to place a city 
among other cities of its class, and the position of a city 
may then be graphically shown. ^ It represents a marked 

1 The Report of the Commission appointed to study the System of Educa- 
tion in the Public Schools of Baltimore (1911), which was the first of a large 



TESTING RESULTS S29 

advance over the method of judgment by personal opinion, 
and enables a superintendent or a school system to de- 
fend its requests or its practices in the light of conditions 
found or expenditures made in other cities of its class. 
Whether a city is above or below the average for other 
cities of its class in any item, or whether its schools or its 
practices are particularly different, is easily ascertained and 
easily shown. 

Though not very exact, it is nevertheless a method which 
will always be useful, for certain rough comparisons, while 
in the derivation of more accurate standards it will be 
necessary to make much use of this comparative method. 
The difficulty with the method is that it compares good, 
bad, and indifferent, and tends to place the average or 
median standard so derived in that part of the scale which 
represents mediocrity, rather than placing it in that part 
which represents progress. 

Units or standards for measurement. Within the past 
decade a number of scientific workers have attempted the 
establishment of a series of standards of measurement and 
units of accomplishment, with a view to a better standard- 
ization of educational procedure and the creation of com- 
parable units of accomplishment. Enough has already been 

number of recent school surveys, is a good example of this type of study. 
The method of comparison was largely used in this report, Baltimore being 
compared, in a large number of items, with twelve other cities which in 
1910 had a total population of 300,000 or more. 

The excellent Study of Expenses of City Schools Systems, by Updegraff 
(Bulletin no. 5, 1912, U.S. Bureau of Education), is a study made by this 
same method of comparison, with an explanation of central tendencies in 
expenditures. 

The very valuable studies by Holmes and Jessup, in the Report of the 
Committee on Economy of Time (H. B. Wilson, Chairman), are two other 
examples of the use of the comparative method. 

Still another example of this method is the Report on the Organization, 
Scope, and Finances of the City of Oakland, California, by Cubberley, 48 pp. 
Board of Education Bulletin no. 8, 1915. 



330 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

done to warrant the belief that, in the near future, we shall 
possess numerous scientifically derived scales of measure- 
ment which may be applied to a system of schools, to dif- 
ferent systems, or to parts of a system, and by means of 
which we may measure the quality of the work being done.^ 
This does not mean that all children are to be made alike, 
or that a uniform procedure is to be followed, but rather 
that all practices and methods are to be tested, and those 
which do not give good results are to be discarded. It means 
to substitute demonstrable proof as to the validity of a 
method or a procedure for the present personal opinion of 
teachers and school authorities. 

The work of Courtis^ and Stone^ in measuring arithmeti- 
cal ability; of Ayres,^ Freeman,^ and Thorndike^ in devising 
scales for measuring the quaHty of handwriting; of Thorn- 
dike^ in evolving a drawing scale; of Hillegas,^ the Harvard- 

^ Chapter iv of the Butte School Survey, and chapter rx of the Salt Lake 
City Survey, both of which deal with the accompHshments of pupils, re- 
present attempts to measure school systems in terms of these units, and 
standards. In each case the achievements of pupils in arithmetic, spelhng, 
writing, and composition were measured and compared with results ob- 
tained elsewhere, and the results were set forth in a series of tables and 
graphs. 

2 Courtis, S. A. Manual of Instructions for giving and scoring the Courtis 
Standard Tests. 127 pp. Detroit, 1914. 

^ Stone, C. W. Arithmetical Abilities and Some Factors determining 
them. 101 pp. 1908. Trs. Col. Contribs. to Educ, no. 19. 

* Ayres, L. P. Scale for measuring the Handwriting in Children. Russell 
Sage Foundation, New York, Publication E 113. 

Ayers, L. P. Scale for measuring Handwriting of Adults. Russell Sage 
Foundation, New York, Publication E 138. 

^ Freeman, F. N. The Teaching of Handwriting. Houghton MiflBin 
Co., Boston, 1914. 156 pp., and scales. 

« Thomdike, E. L. "Handwriting"; in Teachers College Record, vol. xi. 
(March, 1910.) 

' Thomdike, E. L. "The Measurement of Achievement in Drawing"; 
in Teachers College Record, vol. xiv. (November, 1913.) 

8 Hillegas, M. B. "Standard for measuring the Quality of English Com- 
position by Young People"; in Teachers College Record, vol. xiii. (Sep- 
tember, 1912.) 



TESTING RESULTS 831 

Newton^ group, and others in evolving scales for measuring 
English composition; of Ay res ^ and Buckingham^ in pre- 
paring standard spelling lists; of Jones,* Courtis,^ Kelly, ^ 
and Thorndike^ in evolving vocabulary and reading stan- 
dards; the Binet-Simon tests, as revised by Terman,^ for de- 
termining mental capacity; the work of Elliott^ and Boyce^° 
in evolving scales for measuring teaching efficiency; the work 
of EUiott,^^ Hutchinson,^2 gtrayer,^^ and Updegraff^* in 
studying city school expenses; and the introduction of 

^ Ballou,F.W. "Scales for the Measurement of Composition"; Harvard- 
Newton Bulletin, no. 2. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Sep- 
tember, 1914. 

' Ayres, L. P. A Measuring Scale for Ability in Spelling. 58 pp. Rus- 
sell Sage Foundation, New York, 1915. 

* Buckingham, B. R. Spelling Ability; lis Measurement and Distribvr 
tion. 116 pp. 1913. Trs. Col. Contribs. to Educ, no. 59. 

* Jones, R. G. Standard Vocabularies; in Fourteenth Y ear-Book of the 
National Society for the Scientific Study of Education, part i, pp. 37-^3. 

" Courtis, S. A. Standards in Rates of Reading; Ibid., pp. 44-58. Also 
Standard Tests in Reading, Writing, and Composition. 

* Kelly, F. J. Silent Reading Tests. Bureau of Educational Measure- 
ments, Kansas State Normal School, 1915. 

' Thomdike, E. L. "Reading Scale"; in Teachers College Record, vol. xv, 
no. 4. (September, 1914.) 

8 Terman, L. M. The Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale for 
Measuring Intelligence. (1916.) A Scientific Monograph. 

Terman, L. M. The Measurement of Intelligence. Houghton Mifflin 
Co., Boston, 1916. A practical guide. 

' Elliott, E. C. "Provisional Plan for the Measure of Merits of Teach- 
ers"; in Cubberley's State and County Educational Reorganization, Appen- 
dix F. Macmillan Co., 1914 

^^ Boyce, A. C. "Methods of Measuring Teaching Efficiency"; in 
Fourteenth Y ear-Book of the National Society for the Study of Education, 
part II. 83 pp. University of Chicago Press, 1915. 

^^ Elliott, E. C. Some Fiscal Aspects of Public Education in American 
Cities. 101 pp. 1905. Trs. Col. Contribs. to Educ, no. 6. 

^2 Hutchinson, J. H. School Costs and School Accounting. Trs. Col. 
Contribs. to Educ, no. 62, 148 pp. 1913. 

" Strayer, G. D. City School Expenditures. 103 pp. 1905. Trs. Col. 
Contribs. to Educ, no. 5. 

" Updegraff, H. A Study of Expenses of City School Systems. 96 pp. 
Bulletin no. 5, 1912, U.S. Bureau of Education. 



332 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

cumulative record cards for pupils and uniform methods of 
accounting^ for school systems, — these mark merely the 
beginning of the work of formulating standards of measure- 
ment and perfecting units of accomplishment for educa- 
tional service. 

Need for standards as guides. An important underlying 
purpose in the creation of all such standard scales for meas- 
uring school work and for comparing the accomplishments 
of different groups of children is to give both supervisors and 
teachers something definite at which to aim in the imparting 
of instruction. Teachers at present too often assign tasks 
and hear lessons without thought of other quantitative 
standards than the covering of the course of study and the 
passage of examination tests, and supervisors too often 
supervise without any very clear idea as to how best to 
direct effort to secure maximum educational results. The 
growth-process in a child, as in a seed, will of course do 
much to unfold what is latent there, but all quantitative 
standards so far evolved show wide variations in accom- 
plishment in supposedly somewhat similar groups. Teach- 
ing without a measuring stick, and without definite stand- 
ards of accomplishment for different groups, and trusting 
to luck and to the growth-process to secure results, is com- 
parable to the old-time luck-and-chance farming, and there 
is no reason to suppose that the introduction of carefully 
formulated and well-tested standards of measurement and 
units for accomplishment into school work — building 
standards, janitor-service standards, health standards, men- 
tal-capacity standards, accomplishment standards in the 
different subjects, instruction standards, teacher standards, 
supervision standards — would not do for education what 

^ Department of Superintendence, National Education Association. 
Report of the Committee on Uniform Records and Reports. 46 pp. Bulletin 
no. 3, 1912, U.S. Bureau of Education. 



TESTING RESULTS 333 

has been done for agriculture as a result of the application 
of scientific knowledge and methods to farming.^ 

Importance of such standards. For the teacher such 
standards and units will mean definiteness. Pupils can be 
carefully examined, and classified in the group where they 
can work most advantageously. Each teacher can know 
definitely what is expected of her, for each type of pupil, 
and, with definite tasks laid down, she can know at all 
times whether or not she is accomplishing the things ex- 
pected of her. The center of educational consciousness will 
be shifted for her from school machinery and courses of 
instruction to the child to be taught. 

With the scales so far evolved teachers can be taught to 
test their own work. Records will need to be kept and 
studied. Many of the results are capable of graphic repre- 
sentation, and over these graphs pupil and teacher may 
confer. Often the pupil can chart his own record, or com- 
pare his own work, and see his own deficiencies. 

From an examination of the pupil-results, building prin- 
cipals and supervisors can tell, almost at a glance, whether 
pupils or rooms are making proper progress; when any 
group has made all desirable progress and should advance; 
whether instruction is directed to what are the weak points 
for the group; where teachers who need help are located, 
and in what particulars they need help; in what rooms the 
load and the teacher are not properly adjusted; and what 
teachers are so inefficient or indifferent or incapable of 

1 "For the sake of argument, suppose all of the usual protests against 
standard tests are conceded. Grant that the tests themselves are not 
scientifically developed; that they are inaccurate; that judgment in their 
application is faulty; that the results are not what is claimed; that certain 
elements in good teaching are immeasurable — granting all of these things 
and more, the fact still remains that the conclusions reached by such tests 
are far more accurate than those based upon vague impressions of what 
ought to be." (Don C. Bliss, in Educational Administration and Super- 
vision, vol. I, p. 88.) 



334 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



--- A 



COURTIS STANDARD TESTS 

= B ^'""^ C 



Graph Sheet 



1. Addition p i ) I I I f ' I I I I I I 7 



a. kMrtctto* 

a. ■•itlfneaUoi 

4. DirUion 

•. tfMtf iMMllHg 



Rl|ku 







riT 



I flr > 



7^ 



^J--4-r't 



J .1 ...I .^ 



r ■ T 
[ ■ y 



Fig. 30. A COURTIS SCORE CARD IN ARITHMETIC 

{Reproduced by permission of Mr. S. A. Courtis) 

In the figure above curves A and B are of two individuals in the same class. From 
an Indiana school. Note that A is practically normal except in the last test (shown by 
the fact that the curve is almost a straight line and lies almost wholly within the 
boundaries of the fourth grade), while B is below grade in every test but one and is 
I articularly weak on reasoning. 

Curves C and D are two measurements of the same child, one in September and the 
other in June. From a Michigan school. Note the correction of many defects and the 
balance of the final scores. 

progress that they should be dropped from the service. For 
the purpose of vocational guidance of pupils such records 
will be of great value. The superintendent, too, can use 
the results to talk to his school board and to his community 
and can justify both the work and the expense of his schools. 
Efficiency departments. It will require time to evolve and 
perfect standards for the general measurement of pupils 
and the evaluation of the different features of school work, 
and the cooperation of a number of individuals will be re- 
quired. Chief among these, after the principals and teach- 
ers, will be the clinical psychologist, the school nurses and 
physicians, efficiency experts along different lines, and a 
competent body of record clerks. 



TESTING RESULTS 3S5 

The need for careful individual records is not likely to 
be over-emphasized with a professional body which in the 
past has kept only mass records, often of a more or less 
meaningless type. A small staff of clerks will be needed to 
make tabulations and record data, as any system of meas- 
urements and standards will be of but little value unless 
careful and somewhat detailed individual and group records 
are kept from year to year. What is needed is a series of 
clear, adequate, incontestable, and accessible records of the 
educational results from time to time achieved in the 
schools. The lesson of the business world, from which we 
have much to learn in the matter of efficiency, is that 
detailed records more than pay for their cost, and that an 
accurate knowledge as to manufacturing processes is im« 
possible without such records. 

There is need now for the creation of an efficiency bureau 
or department, either on a small or a large scale, in con- 
nection with every city school department of any size.^ In 
time such departments will probably come to be connected 
with small city and county-unit organizations as well. 
Since the whole efficiency movement is so recent, and is as 
yet not very clearly defined, there naturally are but few 
persons prepared for such service. Such departments will 
need to be started in the smaller cities by the superintend- 
ent, with the aid of a clerk, and in the larger cities by finding 
some young man of good training and imagination, who is 
interested in the study of difficult educational problems, 

1 A number of cities have already created such, among which may ho 
mentioned: — 

Boston, Department of Educational Investigation and Measurement. 

New York, Division of Reference and Research. 

New Orleans, Department of Education and Research. 

Detroit, Department of Education and Research. 

Kansas City, Director of Research and Efficiency. 

Rochester, Bureau of Efficiency. 

Oakland, Department of Reference and Research. 



336 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

and who can be put in charge and left to find his lines of 
greatest service. In time the work will become more stand- 
ardized and the duties more definite. Such positions are 
almost certain to multiply rapidly, and they will offer at- 
tractive careers to certain types of men. 

Lines of service ; experimental pedagogy. However, some 
of the lines of service for such efficiency departments are 
already clearly defined. Part of these lie along the line of 
business organization, part lie along the lines of special- 
type educational adjustments, and part lie in the field of 
experimental pedagogy. These lines include at least the fol- 
lowing: To study all phases of the process of preparing 
pupils for life-careers, and for efficient community service; 
to study the needs of life and the industries, with a view to 
restating the specifications for the manufacture of the edu- 
cational output; to study means for increasing the rate of 
production, and for eliminating the large present waste in 
manufacture; to test the product at different stages of 
manufacture, and to advise the workers as to the results of 
their labors; to test out different methods of procedure, and 
gradually to eliminate those which do not give good results; 
to study the costs of production, not so much to cut down 
costs as to be able to show how the efficiency of the plant 
may be increased by a proper adjustment or even an in- 
crease in expenditures; to supply the superintendent with 
concrete data with which he may deal more intelligently 
with his board, the public, and the teaching staff; and to 
organize material for publication in the annual printed re- 
port of the school department. 

The clinical psychologist and his work. Any important 
work in increasing the effectiveness of schoolroom instruc- 
tion must, almost of necessity, presuppose the adjustment 
of the load to the pupil, and of the type of work to the 
pupil's possibilities and probable future needs. To-day we 



TESTING RESULTS S37 

do this very roughly or not at all. The differentiated-course 
plan of instructing and promoting pupils, as shown in Figure 
26, is a step in this direction, as are all of the differentiated 
types of schools which have been organized by different 
cities. All of these efforts are valuable, but they go only 
about so far. 

There is need, in all school systems of any size, in addi- 
tion to the efficiency expert or experts so far described, of a 
clinical psychologist, whose prime function shall be to have 
charge of the psychological study of all peculiar children, and 
to oversee the instruction of all children of the retarded or 
subnormal types. In small cities this work will need to be 
done as a phase of the service of the efficiency department, 
and as a part of the work of adjusting teacher and pupil- 
load. Oftentimes the work comes closely in touch with the 
work done by the health department, and is occasionally 
classed as a phase of such service, though it more properly 
belongs with that department whose chief work lies along 
the line of experimental pedagogy. In all large cities, say 
of 200,000 or 250,000 and upward, the clinical psychologist 
has a position important enough to warrant the creation of 
a separate department, coordinate and cooperating with the 
health department and that part of the efficiency department 
which deals with the problems of experimental pedagogy. 

A continuous survey of production. The work described 
in this chapter is new work, and work of a type with which 
schoolmasters are as yet but little familiar, but it is work 
of great future importance, work which will professionalize 
teaching and supervision, and work destined to do much to 
increase the value of the public service rendered by our 
schools. By means of standards and units of the type now 
being evolved and tested out it is even now possible for a 
superintendent of schools to make a survey of his school 
system which will be indicative of its points of strength and 



338 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

weakness, and to learn from the results better methods and 
procedures. In time it will be possible for any school system 
to maintain a continuous survey of all of the different 
phases of its work, through tests made by its corps of effi- 
ciency experts, and to detect weak points in its work almost 
as soon as they appear. 

Every manufacturing establishment that turns out a 
standard product or series of products of any kind main- 
tains a force of efficiency experts to study methods of pro- 
cedure and to measure and test the output of its works. 
Such men ultimately bring the manufacturing establishment 
large returns, by introducing improvements in processes and 
procedure, and in training the workmen to produce a larger 
and a better output. Our schools are, in a sense, factories 
in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and 
fashioned into products to meet the various demands of 
life. The specifications for manufacturing come from the 
demands of twentieth-century civilization, and it is the 
business of the school to build its pupils according to 
the specifications laid down. This demands good tools, spe- 
cialized machinery, continuous measurement of production 
to see if it is according to specifications, the elimination 
of waste in manufacture, and a large variety in the output. 

If it be objected that education is not working with iron 
and brass and leather, but with human beings where hered- 
ity and the growth-process modify production, then we can 
turn to agriculture for a closer analogy. In this field we are 
now providing expert county agricultural advisers, at large 
expense, to assist farmers in improving their methods and 
increasing the value of their output. This is not being done 
because the farmers have asked for such assistance, — often 
they have laughed at the idea and ignored the assistance 
offered, — or because of any philanthropic idea on the part 
of the National Government, chambers of commerce, or 



TESTING RESULTS 339 

produce exchanges, but solely because such advisers pay 
for themselves in the increased and better standardized 
output, or the change in the character of the output which 
results from the better methods and procedure which the 
advisers persuade the farmers to adopt. There is no reason 
to assume that the results arising from expert advice and 
guidance would be particularly different in the field of 
popular education. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Would the development of standards for measurement of instruction 
enable school officers to give a more intelligent accounting to the 
pubUc for the money spent on pubHc education? How? 

2. What do you understand by the statement that "the school, and not 
the world outside, has framed the specifications for the training of 
its graduates"? 

3. Explain your conception of what is meant by: (a) the present isolation 
of the school in the community life; (6) enabling the school to speak a 
language which the community can understand. 

4. Illustrate a good use of the method of comparison. Why does this 
method give results representing mediocrity rather than progress? 

5. The schools of Butte measured high in spelling, very irregular in 
penmanship, fairly satisfactory to high in the four fundamental oper- 
ations in arithmetic, and low in reasoning tests and in composition. 
From this, what would you conclude as to drill v/ork there? 

6. Do supervisors have, in their supervision, an advantage over teachers 
in their teaching, with regard to aim? How and why? 

7. Illustrate the use and possibilities of standards in the following 
matters: — 

(a) Building standards. 

(6) Janitor-service standards. 

(c) Health standards. 

(d) Mental-capacity standards. 

(e) Subject-matter standards. 
(J) Instruction standards. 

(g) Teacher standards. 
(h) Supervision standards. 

8. Illustrate how the introduction of such standards will benefit: — 

(a) The classroom teacher. 

(6) The school principal. 

(c) The superintendent of schools. 

9. Will the general introduction of such standards of accomplishment 



340 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

mean uniformity for all, or just the opposite? Why? What will be 
their effect on unifonnity in courses of study? 

10. How could a series of student records be made of service to a voca- 
tional-guidance bureau? 

11. Illustrate the service of such a department in helping to organize or 
to reconstruct: — 

(a) The work in manual training. 

(b) The household-arts work. 

(c) The high-school commercial department. 

(d) A city industrial school. 

12. Explain what you understand to be the field and chief services, in a 
city school system, of a clinical psychologist. 

13. Is the present movement for part-time industrial schools, in which 
two sets of students alternate with a week in the shops and a week 
in the schools, likely to contribute toward a better adaptation of 
instruction to community needs? 

14. Were the transformations in purpose made in the Newton school 
system, as shown in Figure 28, along lines that an efficiency depart- 
ment probably would have suggested? 

15. In the present struggle for funds in the aimual city budget, do the 
water, sewer, health, fire, and street departments have an advantage 
over the educational department by reason of the latter's lack of 
standards for work and units of accompHshment? 

16. State the importance of the movement for standards for work and 
for units of accomplishment as a means of defense of the schools 
against unjust criticism and attacks. 

17. What advantages would such standard records have over per cents 
in the transference of student records from school to school, or school 
to college? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Examine a few courses of study, of school systems you know, to see 
how far the courses in (a) domestic science, (b) manual training, and 
(c) commercial work seem to have been built up from specifications 
f m-nished by life conditions, and how far on the basis of what school 
men think is desirable preparation, 

2. Examine the vocational-guidance work done in one or more cities, to 
find upon what basis it rests. 

3. Examine into the business needs of some city you know, and report 
as to what extent the courses of instruction in the schools prepare 
pupils to meet such needs. 

4. Carefully read Superintendent Spaulding's "Application of the Prin- 
ciples of Scientific Management," and outHne a study to obtain data 
for some other problem in the study of schoolroom efficiency. 

5. Take a series of records in any school subject, for which standards 
have been evolved, and score the results. 



TESTING RESULTS 341 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Ayres, L. P. "Economy of Time through testing the Course of Study and 

Time Allotment"; in Proceedings of National Education Association^ 

1913, pp. 241-46. 
A brief but suggestive article, dealing with the possibility of applying standards and 

measurements so as to secure a more economical use of the time of pupils. 
Ayres, L. P., and Thorndike, E. L. "Measuring Educational Products 

and Processes" (2 papers); in School Review, vol. 20, pp. 289-309; 

discussion pp. 310-19. 
Two Harvard Teachers' Association papers, on the need for measurement of 

educational products and processes. 

Ballou, F. W. "The Function of a Department of Educational Investiga- 
tion and Measurement in a City School System"; in School and Society , 
vol. I, pp. 181-90. (February 6, 1915.) 
Describes in particular the work in Boston. 
Bliss, D. C. "School Measurements and School Administration"; in Edu- 
cational Administration and Supervision, vol. i, pp. 79-88. (February, 
1915.) 

Shows the application of standard tests to classes, and points out their at least 
indicative value. 
Bobbitt, F. The Supervision of City Schools. Twelfth Year-Book of the 
National Society for the Scientific Study of Education, part i. 96 pp. 
University of Chicago Press, 1913. 
An excellent discussion of the problem of efficiency measurements and standards. 
Butte, Montana. Report of a Survey of the School System. 163 pp. 1914. 

Chapter IV on the achievements of pupils gives the results of a series of tests given 
the pupils in the schools. 

Campbell, M. R. "Methods for making Surveys of Public Schools"; in 
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1914, pp. 840-43. 

An article by the associate psychologist of the psychopathic laboratory of the mu- 
nicipal courts of Chicago, on the types and varieties of children who should be sub*" 
jected to examination and observation. 

Courtis, S. A. "Educational Diagnosis"; in Educational Administration 
and Supervision, vol. i, pp. 89-116. (February, 1915.) 

A very interesting illustrated article on the use of arithmetical tests and scorings* 
showing how each teacher may become an educational physician for her pupils. 

Elson, W. H. "Waste and Efficiency in School Studies"; in Proceedings of 
National Education Association, 1912, pp. 335-43. 

The importance of studying educational waste, with a view to increasing educational 
efficiency. 

Hanus, Paul H. "Improving School Systems by Scientific Management"; 
in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, pp. 247-59. 

An excellent statement of the principles underlying efficient management of a 
school system. 

Indiana University. Conferences on Educational Measurements. Indiana 
University Bulletins: 1914, 170 pp.; 1915; 221 pp. 

These contain verbatim reports of the first and second annual conferences on the 
subject, held at the university, and contain papers, charts, -ables, and discussions. 



S42 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Martin, G. H. "Comparison of Modern Business Methods with Educa- 
tional Methods"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 
1905, pp. 320-25. 
A good sensible article, written before standard school tests bad been devised. 
Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of a Survey of the School System. 324 pp. 
1915. 

Chapter VIII, on the efficiency of the instruction, gives the results of a series of 
tests of the instruction in the schools. 

Scott, F. N. "Efficiency for Efficiency's Sake"; in School Review, vol. 23, 
pp. 34-42, (January, 1915.) 

A sensible criticism of the efficiency movement. Should be read in connection 
with the article by BUss. 

Seashore, C. E. "The Consulting Psychologist"; in Popular Science 
Monthly, vol. 78, pp. 283-90. (March, 1911.) 
A good statement. 
Smith, T. "The Development of Psycho-Clinics in the United States"; 
in Pedagogical Seminary, vol. 21, pp. 143-53. (March, 1914.) 
An historical sketch. 
Spaulding, F. E. "Application of the Principles of Scientific Manage- 
ment"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, pp. 
259-79. 

A sequel to Professor Hanus's paper, showing type studies made in the Newton 
high schools, with charts and tables. An excellent illustration of how to study the work 
of a school system. 
Strayer, G. D., Chairman. Preliminary Report of the Committee on Stand- 
ards and Tests for Measuring the Efficiency of Schools or Systems of 
Schools. Bulletin no. 13, 1913. U.S. Bureau of Education, 23 pp. 
A brief but excellent statement of the fundamental principles involved in testing 
school efficiency. Contains an excellent bibliography of 339 titles, covering all phases 
of efficiency measurements. 

Strayer, G. D., Chairman. Final Report, of above committee; in Proceedings 
of National Education Association, 1915. 
The following papers are included in this report: — 

1. "Aims of Public Education." Ben Blewett. 

2. "Results of Tests in Reading." Charles H. Judd. 

8. "Measurement of Ability in Reading." E. L. Thorndike. 

4. "Efficiency in teaching Grammar." W. H. Maxwell. 

5. "Morals in the Public Schools." J. H. Phillips. 

6. "Results of Tests in Arithmetic." A. S. Baylor. 

7. "Use of Tests and Scales of Measurement in the Administration of Schools." 
G. D. Strayer. 

Strayer, G. D., Chairman. A Further Report, of above committee, in 
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1916. 

A series of papers, describing briefly the results of scientific measurements made in 
the school systems of a number of American cities. 
Wallin, J. E. W. "The New Clinical Psychology and the Psycho-Clinicist"; 
in Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. ii, pp. 121-32, 191-210. 
(March and April, 1911.) 
Work and possibilities, with bibliography. 



TESTING RESULTS 343 

Wilson, H. B., Chairman. Report of the Committee of the Department of 
Superintendence of the National Education Association on Economy 
of Time in Education. Fourteenth Year-Book of the National Society 
for the Study of Education, part i. 152 pp. University of Chicago 
Press, 1914. 

A very important document. Many valuable bibliographies are appended to the 
different chapters. Contains the following studies: — 

1, "The Minimum Essentials in Elementary-School Subjects." H. B. Wilson, 
Chairman. 

2. "Time Distribution by Subjects and Grades in Representative Cities." H. W. 
Holmes. 

S. "Typical Experiments for economizing Time in Elementary Schools." F. E. 
Thompson. 

4. Reading: — 

(a) "Standard Vocabulary." R. G. Jones. 

(b) "Standards in Rates of Reading." S. A. Courtis. 

(c) "Selected Bibliography upon Practical Tests of Reading Ability." W. S. 
Gray. 

5. "Handwriting." F. E. Freeman. 

6. "Spelling." H. C. Pryor. 

7. " Essentials of Composition and Grammar." J. F. Hosic. 

8. " Current Practices and Standards in Arithmetic." W. A. Jessup. 

9. "Minimum Essentials in Elementary Geography and History." W. C. Bagley. 
10. "The Essentials of Literature." J. F. Hosic. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SUPERVISION 

Health supervision necessary. As soon as we begin to 
study questions of efficiency in instruction, in an effort to 
improve the school output and eliminate waste, we run 
at once into questions of health, as they relate to both teach- 
ers and pupils. Even a cursory examination of almost any 
school will reveal serious defects of ears, eyes, nose, throat, 
lungs, teeth, glands, heart action, nutrition, and nervous 
coordination on the part of children. When we consider 
how much such defects must interfere with the efficiency 
of the instruction given, the need for some adequate sys- 
tem of health supervision, if the schools are to obtain good 
results, becomes apparent.^ School health supervision, now 
undertaken by many nations, is only another phase of the 
recent efficiency and conservation movements. 

No marked economy in school work or increase in the 
efficiency of instruction is possible if we are to continue to 
work with poor tools or poor materials. A teacher lacking 
in health and physical vigor is not likely to prove high in 
teaching efficiency, and pupils who are suffering from dis- 
ease or from lack of proper home care or nourishment are 
in no condition to take any large advantage of the instruc- 
tion which is provided. It is, in reality, a waste of money 

^ "The health supervision of schools is not a passing fad. The conser- 
vation of the child is a problem which, like that of world peace, is bound 
to take possession of the minds of all humanitarian people. To the ethical 
principle of humanitarianism is added the stem counsel of biological laws, 
which teach us that an elaborate scheme of mental culture which proceeds 
without regard to the needs of the body is but a house built upon the 
sands." (Hoag and Terman, Health Work in the Schools, p. 1.) 



DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SUPERVISION 345 

to spend three to five dollars a day on a teacher, and four 
to eight dollars a day more per room on equipment, upkeep, 
maintenance, and overhead charges, and neglect entirely the 
fact that from twenty to sixty per cent of the children in 
the room are not in that physical condition which will enable 
them to partake with greatest advantage of the instruction 
which is being provided. No business would neglect so 
important a source of waste. If, by the expenditure of a 
small additional sum, a large portion of this waste could be 
eliminated, a business corporation would consider it good 
policy to do so. 

Results obtained in many American and European cities 
have clearly demonstrated that a very small added cost — 
from ten to seventy-five cents per pupil per year, varying 
somewhat with the kind of health service provided: for a 
room of forty pupils an additional daily expense of from two 
to sixteen cents per room — will provide a health service 
which will increase the value of the instruction offered out 
of all proportion to its actual cost. 

Three stages of development. Health work in the schools 
presents three clearly defined stages in its development.^ 

The first was what was known as "medical inspection," 
the purpose of which was to detect the presence of contagious 
diseases and prevent their spread in the schools and in the 
community. In reality such service was merely an extension 
of the work of the local board of health into the schoolrooms. 
The work began in Boston, in 1894, as a result of a series 
of epidemics among school children there. Chicago fol- 
lowed in 1895, New York City in 1897, and Philadelphia 
in 1898. From these larger cities the movement spread 
rapidly to the smaller cities, about ninety cities having pro- 
vided such service by 1907, three hundred and thirty-seven 

^ Epitomized from Hoag and Terman's Health Work in the Schools, 
chap. II. 



S46 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

by 1910, and nearly five hundred by 1913. The results ob- 
tained from such "inspections" have been surprising. 

The second stage is represented by an extension of the 
scope of the work to include examinations for non-conta- 
gious physical defects, such as those of the eye, ear, nose, 
teeth, heart action, nutrition, and nervous coordination. 
It was at once seen that many of these defects have an im- 
portant influence on the child's school progress, and that 
many of them were easily curable or removable. The result 
has been that about one-half of our cities, mostly the larger 
ones, have now undertaken to give their children complete 
examinations for all kinds of physical defectiveness, and 
to advise parents as to needs. 

The third stage passes beyond these two earlier ones, and 
enters the field of preventative medicine. Its keynote is 
the cultivation of the health of all, and the prevention of 
defectiveness in any by the hygienic supervision of all 
school activities. This third and most important phase of 
health supervision is as yet only in its beginnings, but in 
time it is destined to supersede the two earlier forms, and to 
be extended to include rural schools as well as city schools. 

Only about four per cent of the school children, statistics 
show, need to be excluded in any one year on account of 
contagious diseases, while fifty to sixty per cent of the 
children suffer from non-contagious physical defects which 
interfere more or less with educational procedure, and which 
need to be taken into accoimt by school authorities. All need 
instruction in personal hygiene to enable them to take 
proper care of their health. Health thus properly becomes 
an educational problem, and one not likely to be dealt with 
in any effective manner except by the educational authori- 
ties. The problem is how best to conserve the child's native 
physical vigor and to overcome, as far as possible, his heredi- 
tary or acquired physical deficiencies, not only that his 



DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SUPERVISION 347 

progress in school may be normal, but that he may develop 
into a strong and sound human being, knowing how to care 
for himself. 

Scope of the work. A system of school health super- 
vision has a much larger function than the mere detection 
of disease, though this should, of course, be a part of its 
work. A much larger field of service, though, lies in the 
detection of physical defects, in securing the cooperation 
of the parents in the treatment of these defects, in finding 
and ameliorating bad home conditions which are interfer- 
ing with the health and normal school progress of the chil- 
dren, in cooperating with the school architect and sanitary 
engineers in securing hj^gienic conditions in the school 
plant, in eliminating existing conditions which are unsani- 
tary or which tend to increase physical defects in school 
children, in the hygienic supervision of school athletics and 
playground work, in assisting teachers in hygiene-teaching 
in the schools, and in examining and advising teachers and 
janitors as to their personal health. To a large degree the 
school health service should aim to improve the health of 
the entire community, making the school a hygienic center 
as well as an educational one. 

The work of health supervision in our schools is as yet, 
generally speaking, only in its beginnings, but that the 
service will be very materially extended in the future seems 
practically certain. The argument that it invades the rights 
of the home is on a par with the arguments against compul- 
sory school attendance and prescribed courses of study. A 
generation ago compulsory school attendance was regarded 
as a meddlesome interference with the rights of parents to 
do with their children as they saw fit, and a million illiterate 
adults among us to-day stand as a witness to the value of 
such a theory. Still more, with the somewhat general ig- 
norance on health questions on the part of otherwise intelli- 



848 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

gent parents, millions of adults stand to-day as physical 
witnesses of the neglect of parents in health matters. They 
are not physically what they might have been, and their 
children are weaker in consequence. The children of to-day 
represent the racial stock of to-morrow, and to conserve 
and to improve this racial stock along physical lines is as 
important a function of the State as to improve it along 
intellectual lines. We have long recognized the principle 
with reference to our crops and our live stock, and national 
and state governments have spent millions in improving 
grains and stocks and yields, but we have only recently 
begun to recognize that the same biological principles apply 
to the rearing of children that apply to the care of trees, 
grains, horses, cattle, hogs, and dogs. 

Control of the work. Medical inspection everywhere be- 
gan as an extension of the work of boards of health, but in 
something over three fourths of the cities of the United 
States now supporting health work in the schools the serv- 
ice has since been placed under the control of the board 
of education. This must now be regarded as its proper place, 
because the work is essentially an educational service. 
Boards of health tend too much to emphasize the mere pre- 
vention of disease; the interest of teachers and school offi- 
cers is not usually. enlisted to any great extent by such serv- 
ice; and the board of health physicians usually do not see 
the larger educational relationships, and in consequence of 
this and of their lack of both knowledge and authority they 
cannot prescribe the adjustments in educational processes 
which are often necessary to promote the health and growth- 
needs of the pupils.^ There are, however, some instances 

1 "While it is possible for the work to be efficiently carried on by a 
board of health, it is extremely unlikely that it will be. The board of 
health lacks the educational point of view, usually makes the work curative 
rather than preventative, neglects the so-called 'minor' forms of defec- 
tiveness, makes the school service a side issue of the public health work, 



DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SUPERVISION 349 

of excellent work being carried on in the schools by boards 
of health, as well as some poor work done by school "health 
departments." Much depends, of com-se, upon the man 
who directs the work and his conceptions as to its nature and 
scope. Still, notwithstanding exceptions to the statement, 
there can no longer be any question but that the health 
supervision of schools in our American cities should be 
conducted by a health department, organized as a part 
of the educational system and service of the city. 

Such a department should be one of the principal depart- 
ments of a city school system, as is shown in Figure 14. 
The work represents a new technical field, requires expert 
direction, and the expertness of the department should be 
respected in its administration. Only to the superintendent 
of schools, as the coordinating head of the whole school 
organization, should the department be subject and re- 
sponsible.^ Under the director of this department should 
be the physicians, specialists, and nurses employed, and he 
should direct their work. He should also have partial super- 
vision of the work done in the open-air schools, the schools 
for physical defectives, the playground work, and the health 
teaching in the schools. The clinical psychologist and the 
health director should also work in close cooperation. All 
candidates for positions as teachers or janitors should be 
examined physically and approved by him before employ- 
ment, and those in service should have the right to seek the 
advice of the department in physical matters. 

and fails to secure the maximum cooperation from teachers and parents." 
{Portland School Survey Report, chap, xiv, p. 349.) 

1 This responsibiUty to the educational department is important, for 
in many matters there must be coordination of the work. In case of con- 
flict an appeal would naturally lie to the board of education. There ought, 
however, to be little cause for conflict. A medical director will find that 
he must work largely through the superintendent, principals, and teachers, 
and if he is reasonable and holpful and does not meddle too much with 
the Avork of instruction, he will secure the hearty cooperation of the mem- 
bers of the educational department. 



350 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Three types of health supervision may be considered as 
feasible, namely, (1) well-developed departments of school 
health supervision, with an adequately equipped staff; 
(2) smaller or partially developed undertakings, using a 
whole-time or part-time physician, and a few nurses; (3) in 
still smaller cities, where a nurse and the teachers do all of 
the health work. 

The large-city plan. A city of fifty to sixty thousand 
school children should have at least the following staff : ^ 

One chief health director, giving his entire time to the 
work. This person should be a physician who has a special 
interest in and adaptability for work with school children. 

One general medical officer. 

One eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist. 

One specialist in mental and nervous diseases, who is 
also experienced in psychological methods. This speciaUst 
would be closely associated in his work with the clinical 
psychologist. 

One emergency physician. 

One woman physician, in charge of high-school girls. 

One dental specialist. 

From twenty to forty school nurses, who visit rooms, 
observe pupils and sanitary conditions, make preliminary 
examinations of pupils, assist in the teaching of hygiene, 
visit the homes, and follow up cases to see that something 
is done when recommendations are made for treatment. 

All physicians and specialists in a city of this size to be 
full-time workers, this being considered more desirable than 
part-time service. 

^ Adapted from Hoag and Terman's recommendations. They recom- 
mend a smaller staff of physicians (seven against the usual twelve for a 
city of such size), and more nurses than are usually found (usual ratio 
about one for 5000 children; desirable, one for every 1000 to 2000 children, 
depending somewhat upon social conditions). The nurse is in many ways 
more useful than the physician, and much cheaper. 



DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SUPERVISION 351 

1 In equipment there will be needed a central office, con- 
taining a general reception-room, examining-rooms, office, 
a laboratory equipped with medical and psychological ap- 
paratus, and a dental and a medical clinic. A nurse*« room 
in each large school-building,^ with some equipment for 
examinations and simple treatments, is also very desirable. 

Such a system of health supervision, with an adequate 
staff of school nurses, wiU cost from fifty cents to one dollar 
per year per pupil, depending upon the number of nurses 
necessary and the salaries paid physicians and nurses. This 
is about fifteen to thirty per cent of what a city of such size 
would spend on supervision. By reducing the number of 
medical officers and specialists to one or two, as would be 
done in a smaller city, both the total and the per-capita cost 
may be materially reduced. In some cases it is reduced 
to as low as fifteen to twenty-five cents per pupil per 
year. 

The smaller-city plan. For the smaller city, which does 
not feel that it can afford any elaborate staff, the plan of a 
part-time physician and a relatively large number of nurses 
(one for every thousand to eighteen hundred children, 
depending somewhat on social conditions and needs), or a 
staff of school nurses alone, is desirable. In many respects 
the school nurse excels the physician in detecting disease and 
defects, awakens less professional jealousy among doctors, 
gets better response from children and parents, and coop- 
erates better with teachers and outside organizations. For 
fully ninety per cent of the usual defects of school children 
the properly trained school nurse can act as well as the school 
physician.^ In beginning school health work in a city which 

1 In the new Pittsburg buildings, at Gary, and in some other places, 
a school-physician's room has been provided in each school building, as 
preferable to a series of central offices. 

^ See chap, xi of the Salt Lake City Survey Report for interesting 
statistics as to the effectiveness of the school nurse. 



'>4 



352 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

has heretofore had no such service, the trained school nurse 
oSers the best means of making a start. Beginning with one 
or two school nurses, more will soon be needed, and the 
cases they cannot handle will soon demonstrate the need oi 
a part-time school physician. 

The cost under the nurse-alone plan, or nurses with a 
part-time consulting physician, is naturally somewhat less 
than where a full-time medical service, as described above, 
is maintained, though it will not be markedly so if an ade- 
quate staff of nurses is provided. 

The teacher and health service. We have not as yet 
realized the possibilities for utilizing the teacher in city 
health service, yet in any school system the effectiveness 
of any health service established will have to depend largely 
upon the intelligent cooperation of the teachers in the 
schools. They more than any one else are with the children, 
and they more than any one else have opportunities for 
observing the effects of instruction, nervousness, eye-strain, 
ear-discharge, deafness, and the first symptoms of conta- 
gious diseases. Without such cooperation of the teaching 
force health supervision is doomed either to failure or to an 
indifferent success. This is an additional reason why the 
control should rest with the school department, and not 
with the board of health. 

The present condition, though, is that teachers know 
little as to the detection of diseases, common physical de* 
fects, the hygiene of growth, or preventative medical hy- 
giene. Even good teachers are usually blind to all but the 
most common disorders, yet, under the direction of a school 
nurse or a health director, they can in time acquire marked 
skill in detecting the symptoms of common physical de- 
fects. However, unless the teacher's interest is enlisted 
and she is taught to observe, she is likely to remain blind 
to defects, leaving all such matters to the school physi- 



DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SUPERVISION 353 

cians to look after while she attends to matters of in- 
struction. 

The simplest form of health service consists of training 
teachers to observe defects, teaching them to read the health 
index of children, and showing them how to make a health 
survey of the children in their schools.^ Such work is 
naturally elementary and preparatory, but it is of much value 
in training teachers to observe their children, in overcom- 
ing the common prejudice against physical examinations of 
children, in educating the public in matters of child hygiene 
and preventative medicine, and in awakening a community 
demand for a better system of health supervision. The next 
step is the employment of the school nurse, and then the 
school physician. 

Importance of the service. The development of the 
health work in connection with public education, during the 
past decade in particular in this country and during the past 
two decades in the more important nations of the civilized 
world, must be regarded as a phase of the important con- 
servation movement which has recently arisen. We have of 
late directed new attention to the stoppage of waste, both 
in our natural and in our human resources. Yet the great 
problem of national conservation is not so much soils or 
mines or forests or water-power, important as these may be, 
but the conservation of our national vitality. As a people 
we are beginning to see that we live for the generations 
that are to follow as well as for ourselves of to-day. Evolu- 

^ Hoag and Terman, in their Health Work in the Schools, devote two 
chapters to showing how this may be done. Chapter v, on "The Health 
Grading of School Children by Teachers," gives forms and blanks to be 
used and tells what to look for, while Chapter vi, on "A Demonstration 
Clinic for Instruction in the Observation of Defects," gives a stenographic 
report of a clinic held for the instruction of teachers in examining children. 
These two chapters outline plans for such work in such a way as to make 
it possible to employ the method in small-town school systems. 



354 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

tion and biologic progress within recent years have brought 
this home to us. 

The great masses of our people, though, have not as yet 
clearly conceived the idea, and not infrequently oppose 
attempts in this direction. Among the mass of our people 
much ignorance as to health, disease, and hygienic laws 
still exists. The annual loss to our people through prevent- 
able diseases and deaths is still appallingly large. To reduce 
such ignorance and waste is a national duty, and no agency 
of our society has such opportunities for usefulness in this 
direction as has the public school. It is, in fact, society's one 
important agency for improving the health of succeeding 
generations, and for reducing the present enormous human 
waste. Even the waste occasioned in its own work by physi- 
cal defects and disease is sufl&cient to warrant the expense 
for the best of health supervision and hygiene teaching. 

This new work is of large importance, both for the im- 
provement of society and the increased efficiency in in- 
struction, and the future is almost certain to see it developed 
into a very important branch of our public school service.^ 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Explain the nature of the service to be rendered by a department of 
health supervision under each of the headings enumerated under 
"Scope of the work." 

2. Maxwell states that health supervision reduces the cost of instruc- 

^ " The fundamental method of adjusting the schools to the situation is, 
first, to get specialized intelligence at work on the problem; second, to study 
and investigate health needs of pupils and community; third, to study the 
relation of the school to other health agencies, in order to determine its sup- 
plemental function; and, fourth, actively and energetically, ^dth state aid 
and community cooperation, to go forward and make the health knowledge 
now possessed by the few the actual health practice of the many. Pre- 
ventative medicine and preventative education must go hand in hand. 
The goal is economy, efficiency, national vitality, and national happiness." 
(L. W. Rapeer, in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, 
p. 658.) 



DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SUPERVISION 355 

tion, and thus saves instead of costs. Does this appeal to you as 
reasonable? Where would the reductions come in? 

3. Any adequate system for health supervision in the schools will, 
almost of necessity, come to involve for some children (a) free dental 
work, (b) free spectacles, and (c) school feeding. Do these seem to you 
to be legitimate consequences of free and compulsory education? 

4. Are such services to children essentially different from the services 
rendered farmers by national and state agricultural departments? 

5. Why is it easier to secure appropriations for improving grains and 
breeds of cattle and for eliminating diseases among animals than for 
improving the health of children? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Find the per-capita cost for health supervision of different types in 
different cities. 

2. Find the per-capita cost for instruction, maintenance and equipment, 
and overhead (office and supervision) expenses in some city school 
system, and show what percentage of additional cost a satisfactory 
system of health supervision would add. 

3. Plan a health service, of different types, for some city you know, and 
estimate its total and per-pupil cost. 

4. Investigate and report on: — 

(a) Open-air schools. 
(6) School feeding. 

(c) Dental clinics. 

(d) Work of school nurses. 

(e) Mortality rates of children in cities. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Dresslar, F, B. "Methods and Means of Health Teaching in the United 
States"; in Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1913, vol. i, 
pp. 415-34. 

A good descriptive article on health service, hygiene, and the work of doctors and 
nurses. 

Gulick, L., and Ayres, L. P. The Medical Inspection of Schools. 224 pp. 
Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 3d ed., 1913. 

An excellent book on the administrative side of the question. Gives many blank 
forms and many data as to the service. Good bibliography. 

nines, L. M. "Some Phases of the Health Supervision of Schools"; in 
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1914, pp. 663-68. 

The work to be done and the practical difficulties in the way. A good paper from 
a superintendent's point of view. 

Hoag, E. B., and Terman, L. M. Health Work in the Schools. 321 pp. 
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1914. 
An excellent book, technically accurate, yet written in a style simple enough to bring 



356 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the work within the comprehension of the teacher and layman. Contains outlines for 
health supervision, the health grading of school children, and the teaching of hygiene. 

Maxwell, W. H. "The Necessity for Departments of Health within Boards 
of Education"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1909, 
pp. 252-57. 

Necessity for, influence of, and best form for control of department. 

Portland, Oregon. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. (1913.) 
441 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1915. 

Chapter XIV on medical inspection, hygiene teaching, physical training, and special 
schools for defectives gives a good outline for a health service suited to the needs of 
a city of 30,000 school children. 

Rapeer, L. W. School Health Administration. 360 pp. Teachers College 
PubUcations, New York, 1913. 

An excellent work on the national health problem; how the problem is being solved 
in twenty-five cities; and a tentative standard plan for the administration of medical 
inspection. 

Rapeer, L. W. "The Administration of Educational Hygiene"; in Pro- 
ceedings of National Education Association, 1913, pp. 649-58. 
A good brief statement of the problem, and a plan for handling it. 
Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of a Survey of the School System. 324 pp. 
1915. 

Chapter XI, on health supervision, describes conditions in a city of 110,000 inhabi- 
tants, where the work is under intelligent direction. 

Springfield, Illinois. Survey of the Public Schools. 153 pp. Russell Sage 
Foundation, New York, 1914. 

Chapter X, on Medical Inspection, describes the work carried on in a city of 52,000 
inhabitants by one nurse and a dental clinic. 

Terman, L. M. The Teacher's Health. 133 pp. Houghton MiflBin Co., 

Boston, 1913. 

An excellent study of the hygiene of an occupation. 
Terman, L. M. The Hygiene of the School Child. 417 pp. Houghton Mifflin 

Co., Boston, 1913. 

An excellent book for the teacher. Contains much information relating to growth, 
physiological differences, malnutrition, physical defects, preventative mental hygiene, 
and the effects of school life on children, which every teacher ought to know. Good 
chapter bibliographies. 

Wood, T. D. Health and Education. 108 pp. Ninth Year-Book of the 
National Society for the Study of Education, part i. University of 
Chicago Pr-ss, 1910. 

Health examinations; school sanitation; the hygiene of instruction; health instruc- 
tion; physical education; bibliography. A valuable report. 

Wood, T. D., and others. The Nurse in Education. 76 pp. Ninth Year^ 
Book of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part ii. 
University of Chicago Press, 1910. 

Chiefly devoted to the educational value of the nurse in the public school. Bibli- 
ography. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT 

The compulsion to attend. A certain form of the ques- 
tion of school efficiency is involved in the matter of the 
attendance of children at the instruction which has been 
provided. After schools have been created for the instruc- 
tion of the children of a community, they fail of their 
purpose to the degree to which the children fail to attend. 
One measure of the efficiency of a school system must be 
the percentage of the total school population in attendance 
at instruction; another must be the percentage of those 
beyond the compulsory school ages who continue to attend. 

That some compulsion to attend is necessary, in the case 
of a varying percentage of the children of school age in dif- 
ferent communities, is a matter of common knowledge. To 
provide for the application of such compulsion almost all of 
our States have enacted some form of a compulsory-attend- 
ance law, and within the past decade a number have ma- 
terially strengthened their earlier laws on the subject. In 
most of our States, however, the laws relating to the com- 
pulsory attendance of children at school are as yet but 
poorly enforced, and in some States they are virtually a 
dead letter. In many of our States, too, it is only in the 
cities and larger towns that any real attempt to enforce 
compulsory attendance has been made. 

Differences and difficulties. The different state laws 
vary much in the age limits for compulsion, the period of 
attendance at school required each year, the means pro- 
vided for enforcing the law, the relation of the public schools 



858 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

to private and parochial schools with regard to enforce- 
ment, and the relation of compulsory attendance to child 
labor in the state. While a few States and cities have made 
commendable progress in the matter of the compulsory- 
attendance of children at school, we may be said, as a na- 
tion, to have made as yet only a good beginning. 

In part this condition is due to the attitude of our people, 
many of whom have not as yet seen the necessity for such 
laws; in part to the desire of parents to get their children 
at work for the wages they may bring in; in part to the atti- 
tude of teachers and school principals, who do not want 
street children brought into their schools; in part to the 
attitude of the school authorities, who do not want to go 
to the expense of enforcing the law and, in addition, pro- 
viding special classes and schools to meet the needs of those 
brought in; in part to inadequate census records as to chil- 
dren who ought to be in school and are not; in part to the 
rather general lack of any relationship between private 
and public education in the matters of attendance and the 
character of instruction; in part to inadequate child-labor 
laws, or the lack of proper enforcement of those existing; 
and in part to the somewhat general lack of any provision 
for extension or vocational training for the older pupils who 
might be induced or who would be compelled to attend. 

The difficulties which have been met with in the enforce- 
ment of attendance laws have indicated three main needs, 
namely, (1) better means and methods for the enforce- 
ment of the attendance and child-labor laws; (2) better 
plans for the registration of children of the compulsory- 
attendance ages; and (3) the provision of specialized instruc- 
tion to meet the needs of the new children brought into 
the schools. The tendency of our states to extend the time 
of required attendance at school to the sixteenth year, and 
to require attendance every day the schools are in session. 



THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT 359 

have together given new emphasis to the need for special- 
ized and differentiated instruction in the schools. 

The attendance department. In a small city a single 
attendance officer, employed by the board of education, 
and working under the direction of the superintendent of 
schools and in cooperation with principals and teachers, is 
about the best which now can be provided. The work of 
this officer will be to receive daily reports by telephone from 
the schools and other sources as to the non-attendance of 
children; to visit the homes of such children as are reported 
absent; to ascertain the reasons for their non-attendance; 
to take up on the streets children found there during school 
hours; to receive applications for labor permits, and to issue 
the same after investigation; to serve notices on parents as 
to violations of the law; and, in extreme cases, to enter and 
follow up prosecutions. It is the business of the attendance 
officer to guard the educational rights of children, and in 
doing so he represents the superintendent of instruction, the 
teachers, and the State. 

The following record of the work of an attendance officer, 
in a city of approximately fourteen thousand inhabitants, 
employing one man to attend to the work, and maintaining 
a parental school, will illustrate the nature of the duties of 
such an official in a small city : — 

Number of cases reported to oflSce 267 

(a) By principals and teachers 221 

(b) By citizens 15 

(c) By policemen 31 

Number of cases investigated 251 

Children kept at home 207 

(a) By parents (temporary necessity) 48 

(b) By parents (neglect) 89 

(c) By sickness 47 

(d) By poverty 23 

Children withdrawn and sent to work 14 

(a) Compulsory age passed 10 

(6) Illegally 4 



360 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Children having left city 9 

Children truant unknown to parents 21 

Children returned to school 232 

Parents of children dealt with : 183 

(a) Warned 171 

(6) Brought before officer 12 

Children brought before Juvenile Court 12 

(a) Put on probation 10 

(6) Sent to State Training School 2 

Cases reported to the Associated Charities 23 

Labor permits applied for 132 

Labor permits issued, after investigation 116 

In a larger city the attendance work will naturally re- 
quire a larger staff, the city being divided into attendance 
districts for the better prosecution of the work. The posi- 
tion of the attendance department in the educational or- 
ganization of a large city is shown in Figure 14. In such a 
city the attendance officers will cooperate closely with the 
parental school or schools, the special ungraded rooms for 
troublesome cases and defective children, the school nurse, 
the juvenile court, the charity workers, and the private and 
parochial schools. Offering, as we do, to parents the choice 
of the kind of school to which they will send their child- 
ren, it is only proper that the public school attendance offi- 
cers should enforce, without charge, attendance at private 
and parochial schools as well as at public schools. This 
naturally involves full cooperation between private and 
parochial schools on the one hand and the public school 
authorities on the other. 

The general duties of the different attendance officers, 
however, may not be particularly different in the larger 
city from what they are in a smaller one, unless better means 
for enforcing the compulsory-attendance laws are pro- 
vided. These better means involve a better plan for coop- 
eration between all of the different educational agencies of 
the community, and a better organization of specialized 
instruction and of special schools. 



THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT 



361 



Increased school attendance. As 
will be seen from the preceding re- 
port of the work of an attendance 
officer in a small city, his handling 
of the cases which were reported to 
him was quite satisfactory. His ser- 
vices to the city fully justified his 
appointment. His presence and his 
official activity also doubtless kept 
other children and other parents 
from doing things which would have 
resulted in their being reported to 
him. His work thus has a preventa- 
tive, as well as a correctional value. 
It is also safe to say that by reason 
of his official existence and work both 
the regularity of attendance of chil- 
dren enrolled and the total number 
of children in attendance were ma- 
terially increased. 

The increased regularity of attend- 
ance of children enrolled is of itself 
an important item, as all studies have 
shown a close correlation between 
retardation and dropping from school 
on the one hand, and irregular at- 
tendance on the other. 1 As for the 
increased total attendance, if the 
state and county school funds had 
been apportioned to this city wholly, 
or even partially, on the basis of 
attendance, instead of on school 



•100 



80 



70 



60 



50 



40 



30 



20 



10 



Absent 

less than 

25 half days 



Absent ' 
more than 
25 half days 



W^ Dropping Out 
ES Non-promotion 
ITTIMIl Promotion 
Fig. 31. EFFECT OF AB- 
SENCE ON PROMOTION 
RATE AND DROPPING 
FROM SCHOOL 
(From tli«^ Study of Ouer A ge and 
Prnare/ts in the Public School* 
oj Dayton, Ohio.) 



^ See Ayres, L. P., "Irregular Attendance the Cause of Retardation' 
in Psychological Clinic, vol. iii, pp. 1-9. (March, 1909.) 



362 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

census, as is done in a number of our American States, it 
is probable that this attendance officer would have earned 
for the city a substantial portion of the salary paid him. 

The registration of school children. The difficulty with 
all attendance departments managed according to the plan 
just given, which is the usual plan, is that the officers work, 
in a way, in the dark. They take up children found on 
the streets and investigate absences, but the information 
collected as to the children who ought to be in school is 
usually of little value for purposes of enforcing attendance. 

The usual school census is taken for purposes of the ap- 
portionment of school fluids, and not for purposes of en- 
forcing compulsory attendance and child-labor laws. What 
is called for is the number of children of the legal school age, 
such as five to eighteen, six to twenty, or seven to fifteen, 
the legal school ages varying in the different States. Some- 
times two or three group-ages are collected, such as five to 
seven, eight to fifteen, and sixteen to eighteen, but again 
such figures are of little real value. In some States a school 
census is taken only once in two years; in some other 
States no school census of any kind is taken. ^ 

In the absence of any accurate data as to ages, number, 
or location of the children of school age in a city or district, 
neither the attendance officers nor the principals can know, 
with any degree of accuracy, what children should report 
for school at the beginning of any school year. Neither do 
they know, usually, what children are attending private 
or parochial schools instead of the public schools, nor how 
regularly they attend such schools. The lack of accurate 
age and residence data, and the somewhat general lack of 

^ California is a good case in point. When the State changed the basis 
for the apportionment of state funds from school census to average daily 
attendance, it abolished the annual school census as a useless waste of 
school funds. 



THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT 863 

cooperation between pubKc and private educational agen- 
cies in the enforcement of attendance laws, are serious 
defects which need to be remedied. 

What is needed, as a prerequisite to any adequate enforce- 
ment of compulsory-attendance and child-labor laws, is an 
accurate school census. This should be on card forms, so as 
to be capable of being sorted into any grouping which may 
seem desirable. There should be a card for each child, 
containing: ^ 

(a) Name of child (surname first). 
(6) Sex of child. 

(c) Month, day, and year of birth, from which the number of 
years old, at last birthday, is also to be set down. The 
authority upon which the age is taken (word of parent; 
birth certificate; baptismal certificate; passport; etc.,) should 
also be indicated, to serve as a basis for age and working 
certificates later on. 

(d) Country of birth, and nationality of father and mother. 

(e) Name of parent (father or mother), guardian, or other 
person standing in parental relation. 

(J) Abode, including school attendance district; post-oflSce ad- 
dress; and, if in cities, street, number, and apartment or 
flat. 

(g) Physical condition (good; deaf; dumb; blind; crippled). 

(h) Mental condition (good; otherwise). 

(i) School attending (public, private, parochial), and name of. 

(J) Position in school (grade). 

(k) Reason, if not attending school. 

(Z) If employed, where and how. 
(m) Vaccination certificate record. 

All such records should be kept in duplicate, one set at the 
attendance department oflSce, and the other at the oflBce of 
the principal of the school attended, be it public, private, 
or parochial. 

A continuing school census. After such data have once 

1 From the author's State and County Educational Reorganization, Sec. 
221. See also the Report of the Butte School Survey, chap. x. 



864 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

been collected and tabulated, by ages, by schools attended, 
and by attendance districts, the data should be kept fresh 
and accurate by means of continuous corrections. A new 
census need not be taken very often, and not necessarily 
for the entire city at any one time. To keep a continuing 
census, by which is meant a constant correction of the 
data, is much more important. To do this it should be made 
the legal duty of parents or guardians, and of all public, 
private, and parochial school authorities, to report at once 
all changes in residence or in schools, and all new children 
entering the district or any school in it should be reported 
at once and cards should be made up for them. By making 
it the duty of schools, teachers, parents, police, and charity 
organizations to report changes, and by imposing small fines 
for violation of the requirement, our States could in time 
secure from our people data from which reasonably accurate 
school-census records could be constantly at hand, and 
from which compulsory-attendance and child-labor laws 
could be carefully and fully enforced. In the larger cities 
additional means, such as the requirement that moving 
and express wagons be licensed, and that owners be re- 
quired to report changes in tenants, would also probably 
need to be imposed. 

It is only by some such means that any accurate and con- 
tinuing census of children of attendance ages can be vigor- 
ously enforced. Few American States are as yet ready foi 
such general legislation. The beginnings will have to be 
made by laws authorizing cities to establish such attendance 
and census departments, and permitting them to enforce 
such laws within their own boundaries.^ In time we shall 
in all probability come to a somewhat general state enforce- 

^ New York City forms our best example of a city with special school- 
census powers. The law for this city probably represents as yet our best at- 
tendance legislation. 



THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT 365 

ment of some such provisions.^ The provision of public edu- 
cation as a state necessity, without the natural corollary 
that all within certain ages be required to partake of the 
advantages provided, is hardly a defensible procedure. 

The cost of maintaining such a school census will natur- 
ally be somewhat higher than for taking the present type of 
school census, but its value will be out of all proportion to the 
increased cost. Aside from forming a basis for the apportion- 
ment of school funds, the present form of school census is of 
little real value for any purpose. It is also commonly taken 
on sheets, bound in a book or rolled up, and is but little used 
for attendance purposes. The card form is serviceable. A 
small force of record clerks will of course be needed to keep 
the records accurate. Most of the work of house-to-house 
revision can be accomplished by the attendance officer dur- 
ing the summer vacation, at no large extra expense. Such 
a plan for census records also involves the education of 
many communities up to new and larger conceptions as to 
the work and purpose of public education. 

Further obstacles and needs. From the beginning of our 
attempts to enforce compulsory-education laws it has been 
found that special adjustments within the schools were 
necessary to meet the peculiar needs of the new classes 
brought in from the streets. This has been particularly the 

^ Encouragement for this belief is found in the history of compulsory 
education with us and abroad. The first State to enact a compulsory- 
attendance law was Massachusetts, in 1852. It was fifteen years before 
another State attempted such legislation, — Vermont, 1867. By 1885 the 
District of Columbia and twenty States had enacted such laws, and by 
1890 seven more States had done so. By 1908 almost all of the States had 
enacted some form of compulsory-attendance laws. There has also, within 
the past fifteen years, been a very marked increase in the requirements of 
these laws, both in the extension of the age limits for compulsion to attend, 
and in the extension of the required period from a few weeks to the entire 
time the schools are in session. Compared with a nation such as Germany, 
though, we are as yet in the beginnings of compulsion to attend. 



366 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMENFISTRATION 

case in communities where compulsory attendance has not 
been enforced in previous years, and where many truants, 
incorrigibles, and neglected children of school age are on the 
streets. To bring these into the ordinary schoolroom often 
tends to a demoralization of the schoolroom procedure. 
Such pupils do not profit by the ordinary classroom instruc- 
tion, and their influence often is positively bad. In the 
past, unable to handle such pupils, the school has expelled 
them and turned them loose on the streets. With the recent 
tendency of our States to insist on these pupils being 
brought back into school, and the further tendency of our 
more progressive States to insist upon school attendance 
until the age of sixteen, and for all the time the schools are 
in session, the need for some special adjustment of the in- 
struction to meet the peculiar needs of such children is much 
more pressing than it used to be.^ The problem of the de- 
fective, — the deaf, blind, crippled, tubercular, and sub- 
normal mentally, — as well as the problem of the children 
of needy, sick, or dependent parents, also calls for special 
adjustments and consideration. 

It is soon seen that the logical outcome of any attempt 
at the general compulsory education of all, up to fifteen or 
sixteen years of age and for every day the schools are in 
session, demands the provision of a large number of differ- 
ent types of educational opportunities, through which every 
boy and girl in the community may find in the school a 
type of education suited to his or her peculiar needs. It is 
along some such lines as were followed in the reorganization 

1 "By steadily raising the age of compulsory attendance, the schools 
have come to contain many children who, having no natural appetite for 
study, would under the old regime have left school early. Compulsory 
attendance laws do not create brain capacity nor modify hereditary ten- 
dencies; they only throw responsibility for doing both upon the schools 
and create expectancy in the public." (G. H. Martin, in Report of the 
Massachusetts State Board of Educatwn, 1903-04, p. 98.) 



THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT 367 

effected in the schools at Newton, Massachusetts, as 
shown in Figure 28, or the Los Angeles reorganization, as 
described in Chapter XVIII, that our schools must move. 
Perhaps, in time, the Gary idea may in many places help 
to solve the difficulties. Otherwise we shall only be forcing 
children into schools from which they get little of value 
and where they often become a nuisance, with a resulting 
increase in retardation, troublesome cases, and corporal 
punishment, and, in reality, defeat the citizenship ends for 
which these schools primarily stand. The whole question of 
compulsory attendance is tied up closely with the problems 
of flexible promotion, adjustment of instruction to individ- 
ual needs, provision of special-type schools, reorganization 
of the work of the upper grades, increasing the opportuni- 
ties for vocational training, and, as a result, materially in- 
creasing both the efficiency and the cost of public education. 

Types of schools needed. In addition to the adjustments 
and differentiations just indicated, city school systems have 
need of at least two special types of schools intended prima- 
rily to deal with difficult cases, and cities of sufficient size 
should add a third type. 

The first is the disciplinary class, at least one of which 
should exist in the smaller cities, and in the larger cities 
one such room probably could be advantageously organized 
in connection with every large elementary school. Such 
classes would of course be ungraded classes, taught by 
specially capable teachers, and should not attempt to handle 
over about twenty pupils. To this room or school the 
principals should have power to commit pupils, their stay 
in such usually being somewhat brief. The purpose is to 
handle, in an efficient and orderly manner, and to turn 
back if possible into the main current of the school, those 
who have begun to manifest difficulty in fitting into the 
work of the ordinary school. 



368 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

The second type of school is the parental school, to which 
those who cannot be controlled in the disciplinary classes 
may be committed for an indeterminate period. Some of 
these will be regular truants, and some will be of the chroni- 
cally disobedient and disorderly type. Many of these can 
be turned back into the ordinary school, but some will not 
greatly profit there. These schools are of two types, the 
second of which involves a third. 

In one, which is perhaps the type most commonly found, 
the work is heavy; the commitment is formal and usually 
involves permanent residence at the school until paroled; 
and the course of instruction is more individual, and em- 
phasizes military drill, manual work, agricultural work, 
music, and constructional activities. The hours are long, 
the theory of the school being to make the truant or incor- 
rigible want to reinstate himself or herself in the regular 
school, while developing in him or her sufficient self-con- 
trol to enable this to be brought about. 

The other type of parental school recognizes the pupil as 
**a highly specialized, poorly organized individual, whose 
powers of correlation are weak"; imposes few conditions on 
him; treats him tolerantly and kindly; and aims to discover 
interests upon which the building of his character may be 
begun. Those who do not seem to be able to return to the 
regular school are taken from the parental school, as soon as 
they have discovered that the world is their friend rather 
than their enemy, and are sent to a third type of special 
school. 

This third type is a central school for peculiar boys and 
girls. In the Newton school system this school consisted 
of two special classes, organized in the high school building, 
no attention being paid in sending pupils there to the ques- 
tion of graduation from the eighth grade. In Los Angeles 
a central special school has been provided. Such a class 



THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT 369 

or school should emphasize music, drawing, manual and 
domestic activities, constructional and prevocational work, 
dramatics, and group-organization activities. From this 
school the pupils may in turn be graduated into a regular 
trade school or a manual arts school, if such exists, though 
most of the pupils in such classes will pass out into life soon 
after the end of the period of compulsory school attendance. 
The instruction for such pupils ought to lead them toward 
such trades or occupations as they are likely to become suc- 
cessful in, such as carpentry, bricklaying, plastering, plumb- 
ing, electrical work, printing, automobile repairing, acting 
as chauffeur, gardening, cooking, sewing, serving, etc. 

With a few pupils all of these types of specialized in- 
struction will fail, and such will need to be committed to a 
state institutional school, for a period of years. 

The educational opportunity. The educational problem 
which faces any city to-day is how best to educate all of 
its boys and girls until they have completed the period of 
required school attendance. If this is until the boy or girl 
reaches the age of sixteen, as present tendencies seem to 
indicate will in time come to be the case generally, it should 
be the ambition, as it is the opportunity, of every commu- 
nity to get practically every mentally normal boy and girl 
through the six elementary-school grades and some inter- 
mediate-school course. This means the completion of the 
ninth grade work, in some type of school, by practically 
all. The present "miring in the grades" ought to be 
eliminated, as completely as is possible, and the "mired- 
down" pupils pushed on into work which they can do. The 
big dropping-off at the end of the sixth grade ought also 
to give way to a rather steady curve onward to the end of 
the ninth grade. 

To do this means that a community must realize both its 
educational responsibilities and its educational opportunities. 



370 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRA.TION 



and must provide the types of schools, the differentiations 
in instruction, and the type of supervision, which will make 

such a desirable con- 
dition possible. Flex- 
ible promotional 
schemes, differenti- 
ated courses of study 
and schools, good 
health supervision 
and iustniction, vo- 
cational guidance of 
youth, and the sup- 
port of a well-man- 
aged attendance de- 
partment, are all 
means to this end. 
Every child in the 
community should 
be given education 
long enough and ad- 
vanced enough to 
prepare him or her 
for personal useful- 
ness and efficiency 
in life, and of a type 
that will prepare him 
or her to fit into the 
political, industrial, 
social, or domestic 
life of which he or 
she will ultimately 
form a unit. 
The whole aim and 
purpose of an attendance department in a city school sys- 




Fia. 32. SHOWING DECLINE IN ATTENDANCE 
AFTER THE SIXTH GRADE 

(Prom the Portland, Oregon, School Survey Report.) 

The Oregon laws require attendance at school until 
the end of the fifteenth year of age. The retardation 
of pupils here was such that many reached this age 
while in the sixth grade. Tlie dotted line indicates the 
curve of possible attendance through the ninth school 
year. 



THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT 371 

tern, and of the special classes and schools which should go 
along with it, is that it should form another means by which 
communities may be enabled to attain to this desirable goal 
for their children. The city school system of to-day, which 
enrolls but fifty to sixty per cent of a reported school census, 
and fails to hold fifteen to twenty per cent of the enrollment 
for half of the school year, cannot be rated as a very eflficient 
community agency.^ To change such a condition will in- 
volve the expenditure of more money for education, but it 
is probable that, in time, the increased money will be re- 
turned to the city in the increased civic interest and pro- 
ductive capacity of its citizens, and in the decreased poverty, 
criminality, and prostitution foimd among the members of 
its population. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. The School Survey of the San Francisco schools, made by the local 
branch of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae in 1914 (p. 51) showed 
that 22.9 per cent of all children in the elementary- and high-school 
grades were in the first grade, 48.3 per cent in the first three grades, 
and that 80 per cent were in the first six grades. Would this attend- 
ance seem to indicate that this is an efficiently organized school sys- 
tem? 

2. To what extent and in what communities is the compulsory-attend- 
ance law of your State enforced? What steps should be taken to 
secure a better enforcement? 

3. What relation do private and parochial schools in your State bear to 
the state schools in the matter of enforcing attendance and making 
reports? What relations should exist? 

4. Are there any state requirements as to the quality or character of 
instruction which must be maintained in non-state schools to enable 

1 "Only one half of the children who enter the city elementary schools 
remain to the final elementary-school grade, and only one in ten reaches the 
final year of the high school. On the average, ten per cent of the children 
have left school by the time they are thirteen, forty per cent by fourteen, 
seventy per cent by fifteen, and eighty-five per cent by sixteen. On the 
average the schools carry their pupils as far as the fifth grade, but in some 
cities great numbers leave before that grade." (L. P. Ayres, Laggards in 
the Schools.) 



372 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

them to satisfy the requirements of the compulsory-attendance law? 
If not, would some state approval be justified? 

5. Why is it that the years from fourteen to sixteen can be more profit- 
ably spent at school than at work? 

6. Should a state school-fund apportionment law place a money premium 
on the enforcement of the compulsory-attendance law? How may this 
be done? 

7. Should labor permits be issued by the school department of attend- 
ance exclusively? Why?, 

8. Some of our cities use the police force for attendance oflScers. Is this 
desirable, or not? Why? 

9. Would the class of children brought into the schools by the first real 
enforcement of a compulsory-attendance law be a more diflScult class 
to deal with than would be found after a dozen years of close enforce- 
ment? Why? 

10. A city of 15,000 inhabitants has a population of school age of 3500. 
Of these 60 per cent are enrolled in the schools during the year, and 
the average daily attendance for the year is 75 per cent of the enroll- 
ment. The term is 200 days, and the state grant of money includes a 
grant of 3 cents per pupil per day of actual attendance. 

An attendance officer is now employed, at $50 a month for twelve 
months, the two summer months to be spent in re-checking the school 
census. By his presence and work the enrollment is now increased to 
65 per cent of the census, and the attendance to 80 per cent of the 
enrollment. About what percentage of his salary and office expenses 
has he earned? How many children has he put into the schools? 
What effect will this work have on the cost of education in the city? 

11. In what way has the increase of immigration made compulsory school 
attendance more necessary with us? 

12. In what ways has the break-down of the old apprentice system tended 
to complicate the educational problem? 

13. In what ways has the mere growlh of the modem city increased the 
school's responsibility for (a) the physical, (6) the ethical, and (c) the 
economic welfare of the child, in addition to the former (d) intellec- 
tual welfare? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. What plan for checking-up pupils and enforcing attendance is used 
in the city in your State which best enforces the compulsory-attend- 
ance law? Who issues the child-labor permits, and how are they 
issued? 

2. Outline the type of school census returns you would think desirable 
for a residential city of 25,000 inhabitants, and for a manufacturing 
and commercial city of 250,000 inhabitants. 

3. Show what changes in the state census forms used in your State are 



THE ATTENDANCE DEPARTMENT 873 

necessary to form a basis for an adequate enforcement of the com- 
pulsory-attendance law. 
4. What type of parochial schools exist in your State? How are they 
conducted? What is the nature of the instruction? How effective is 
their work, and about what is their maintenance cost? 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Adams, G. S. "Recent Progress in Training Delinquent Children"; in 
Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1913, vol. i, pp. 481-97. 
On the work of juvenile courts, probation officers, detention homes, and the rela* 
tion of feeble-mindedness to delinquency. 

Butte, Montana. Report of a Survey of the School System of Butte. (1914.) 
Chapter X, on census, records, and reports, contains an excellent discussion of how 
to take records and use school census data. Contains seven of the best approved 
forms for city use. . ^^^ 

Cubberley, E. P. State and County Educational Reorganization 86? pp. 
Macmillan Co., New York, 1914. 

Title VI, on the "Oversight of the State," outlines in legal form the plan for taking 
a continuing school census, and the means provided for enforcing the compulsory- 
attendance and child-labor laws in the hypothetical State of Osceola. The plans out- 
lined represent the best of American city procedure. 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. The Administration of Public Education in 
the United States, 2d ed., 614 pp., 1912. Macmillan Co., New York. 
Chapter XXVII, on compulsory-education and child-labor legislation, is a good 
general discussion from the standpoint of the State. 

Giddings, F. H. "The Social and Legal Aspect of Compulsory Education 
and Child Labor"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 
1905, pp. 111-13. 
Shall the State pay needy parents for keeping their children in school? 
Haney, J. D. Registration of City School Children. 156 pp. Trs. Col. 
Contribs. to Educ, no. 30. New York, 1910. 
A study of the school census, comparing methods in European and American cities. 
Klapper, Paul. " The Bureau of Attendance and Child Welfare of the 
New York City Public School System "; Educational Review, vol. 50, 
pp. 369-91. (November, 1915.) 

Describes the work done, in some detail, and indicates lines for future expansion. 
Martin, G. H. "Child Labor and Compulsory Education, — the School 
Aspect"; in Proceedings of National Education Association, 1905, pp. 
103-111. 
The rights of the child in the matter. 
Nudd, H. W. A Description of the Bureau of Compulsory Education of the 
City of Philadelphia. 62 pp., 33 forms. Publication of the Educational 
Association, New York, 1913. 

Describes the organization and administration of the Bureau; how the school 
census is maintained; how attendance is enforced: how employment certificates are 
issued; and bow results are tabulated and recorded. An important document. 



874 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Portland, Oregon. Report of a Survey of the Public School System. (1913.) 
441 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1915. 

Chapter XV, on "Census and Attendance," describes the work done in a city of 
this size, and the defects in the records and plan. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of a Survey of the School System. 324 pp. 
1915. 

Chapter IX contains much interesting data relating to backward and subnormal 
children, and methods of handling such. 

Shaw, A. M. "A Lesson for the Public Schools"; in World's Work for 
March, 1906. 
Tells significant story of what parental schools have done in Boston and Chicago. 
Snedden, D. "Attendance, Compulsory"; in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Edu- 
cation, vol. II, pp. 285-98. 

A good article. Digests practices in other countries, and in the different American 
States. 

Snedden, D "The Public School and Juvenile Delinquency"; in Educa- 
tional Review, vol. 33, pp. 374-85. (April, 1907.) 

An excellent article on the handling of juvenile delinquents, and the place and work 
of the public schools in the process. 

Woodward, CM. "When and Why Pupils leave School; How to Promote 
Attendance in the Higher Grades"; in Report of the U.S. Commissioner 
of Education, 1899-1900, vol. ii, pp. 1364-74. 

A very interesting article on the reasons for the heavy elimination at St. Louis, 
and the changes and additions necessary to retain pupils better. While these have since 
been made at St. Louis, with good results, the study offers a good model for use 
elsewhere. 

Woodward, C. M. Compulsory School Attendance. 137 pp. Bulletin no. 2» 
1914, U.S. Bureau of Education. 

Contains five articles on compulsory-attendance laws in the United States, in 
foreign countries, compulsory education in Germany, in the South, and the com-, 
pulsory-attendance and child-labor laws of Ohio and Massachusetts. Good bibli- 
ogranby. 



CHAPTER XXII 

BUSINESS AND CLERICAL DEPARTMENT 

Department organization. A business and clerical de- 
partment, of some form and scope, is an absolutely neces- 
sary part of the organization of every city school system of 
any size. In the small city school systems the entire or- 
ganization may consist of only an oflSce bookkeeper and 
clerk, who keeps the books of the school district, under the 
direction of the superintendent, attends to part of the cor- 
respondence, issues orders for the necessary school supplies, 
and assists the superintendent in checking over and approv- 
ing bills for presentation to the board of education. This 
represents the simplest form of organization, and is shown 
in Figure 12. 

As the city grows a regular office and office force will 
need to be organized, the force consisting of a clerk to the 
board or a business manager, with stenographer and book- 
keeper, and with oversight of all business and purely cleri- 
cal matters of the city school district. The work of the 
school janitors, the purchase and distribution of school 
supplies, the repair of schoolhouses, and the upkeep of 
school grounds, naturally fall under the control of this offi- 
cer, thus leaving the superintendent of schools free to attend 
to the supervision of instruction and the larger questions of 
policy and procedure. This condition is shown in Figure 
13. 

As the city grows larger and larger, or as we pass to cities 
of a larger group, a still more highly organized and special- 
ized form of business and clerical department will be needed, 



376 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

under the charge of a business manager, with a secretary, 
bookkeepers, purchasing agent, storekeepers, clerks, stenog- 
raphers, etc. This form of organization is shown in Figure 
14. The work here is much more speciaHzed than in the 
■ease of the medium-sized city shown in Figure 13, by rea- 
son of the subdivision of the business and property con- 
trol into two coordinate departments, one under a business 
manager and one under a superintendent of school proper- 
ties, the two working in close cooperation with each other 
and with the superintendent of schools as the head of all 
departments. 

Work of such a department. To the business manager in 
our larger cities is now entrusted most of the work formerly 
attempted by the building, supply, repair, groimds, insur- 
ance, finance, and judiciary committees of the board of 
education. The business manager, under substantial bonds 
and his work subject to an annual audit by certified ac- 
countants, now acts, under rather close direction of the 
board of education, as its financial agent. He keeps a com- 
plete set of books, covering all financial transactions of the 
school department, and an itemized and classified record 
of all income, expenditures, and appropriations. He ap- 
proves all contracts, and all bills for materials or services, 
and draws all warrants on the treasurer of the board for sala- 
ries, services, materials, work completed, and other items. 
He is the custodian of all securities, insurance policies, con- 
tracts, or legal papers of the board, and also acts as the offi- 
cial secretary of the board and its committees. Where no 
property department has been organized, he also handles 
the purchase and distribution of all school supplies, em- 
ploys and oversees the janitors, and the repair and engineer- 
ing forces temporarily or permanently employed, oversees 
the construction and repair of school buildings, and looks 
after deeds, insurance, and any legal matters relating to the 



BUSINESS AND CLERICAL DEPARTMENT 377 

real estate or the personal property of the school depart- 
ment. In all matters involving legal procedure he may con- 
sult with the attorney retained by the school board as the 
legal adviser of itself and the officers of the school depart- 
ment. The employment and dismissal of janitors, mechan- 
ics, day laborers, clerks, and other similar employees in his 
department naturally rests with him. 

Purpose of the department. The purpose of the depart- 
ment is the organization of the business work connected 
with the schools along good business lines. The board of 
education here, as in the educational work, gives up the 
attempt to handle the details of all such matters them- 
selves, and appoints a business manager to look after the 
business and clerical affairs of the school department, and 
along lines that are businesslike and economical of both 
time and money. As in the educational work, also, the board 
of education retires, as it should, from the details of man- 
agement, acts as a board of directors for a large business 
corporation would act, approves policies and projects, sets 
limits to expenditures, and holds the business manager ac- 
countable if anything goes wrong in his department.^ The 
position calls for a man of good business ability, but also 
for a man who has a sympathetic understanding of the 
needs and purposes of public education. ^ He is there and 

* "The principles of good corporation organization need to be applied to 
educational affairs, and boards of school directors need to assume more 
the position of boards of directors for a large corporation, giving to their 
executive oflScers the authority which corporation directors give to their 
presidents and superintendents. The proper functions of the board of 
directors are to supply funds, to supervise expenditure, and to determine 
what additions to the plant or extensions of the business are to be under- 
taken. So long as the business prospers the board should leave the details 
of employment and management to the president and heads of departments; 
when the business ceases to prosper they should either change their busi- 
ness methods, or change their executive heads." (Portland School Survey 
Report, chap, ii.) 

' The best business manager is often a school man who has marked 



878 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

his department exists not only to relieve the board of edu- 
cation of care and responsibility in matters of business de- 
tail, and to secure a better administration of the school busi- 
ness of the city, but also to serve the best interests of the 
schools. 

Misdirection of the business department. It is at this 
point that some of our business managers in the past have 
made trouble. A few, here and there, have acted almost as 
though they thought that the balance of the school system 
existed to afford business for their office to handle, and they 
have made their office, instead of that of the superintendent 
of schools, the central feature in the school system. The 
superintendent, principals, and teachers have had to con- 
sider the business office first and the superintendent's office 
afterward, and in matters over which the business office 
ought to have little or no control. 

In city A, for example, the business manager, given 
control over the school janitors to insure cleanliness and 
discipline, gradually extended his authority to that of 
a complete control of the use of the school-buildings out- 
side of the regular school hours. As a result, if a principal 
desired to hold a parents' meeting in the evening at his 
school, if a manual-training teacher desired to give some 
extra instruction to pupils or teachers on Saturday morning, 
or if the superintendent of schools desired to hold a meet- 
ing of the teachers at the high-school assembly room, each 
had first to secure permission from the business manager 
before the janitors could permit their use of the building. 

business sense. By the very nature of the work to be done it is easier to 
develop business sense in a good school man than educational sense in a 
business man. It is important that the business manager, whether he be 
merely a clerk in the office of the superintendent in a small school system 
or the head of an important department in a large school system, be kept 
close to the educational management and be made to feel that he is a part 
of the educational organization. This is sometimes difficult to do with the 
man whose training has been wholly on the business side. 



BUSINESS AND CLERICAL DEPARTMENT 379 

In city B, the business manager, acting under his au- 
thority to buy school supplies, determined what and how 
nuch the schools needed. In this city, for example, the com- 
position paper supplied one year was both very poor in 
quality and deficient in quantity, and all written work of the 
pupils was slow in speed and slovenly in looks. This was 
because the business manager, thinking that he knew more 
about the matter than the superintendent of schools, ignored 
the request of the latter for a good quality of paper, and 
supplied a paper three cents per pound cheaper and held 
down requisitions for supplies. He probably saved two 
hundred dollars to the school system, but at the expense 
of slovenly written work, reduced speed in writing, and the 
vexation of the teaching force. 

In city C, the business manager bought everything by 
competitive bidding. If two hundred supplemental third 
readers, or knives or scissors of a certain kind for certain 
forms of manual-arts work were asked for, and he could get 
a different third reader or another kind of knife or scissors 
for a few cents less each, he purchased the cheaper quality 
and the schools were forced to accept what he supplied. 

In city D, the business manager is noted for close econ- 
omy in those things requisitioned for by the instruction 
department, and for great liberality — one might even say 
waste — in those matters for which his department con- 
trols the expenditures. The school plant and grounds are 
kept in a high state of perfection, but teachers' salaries are 
moderate, and library and teaching equipment are low.^ 

Purpose and position of such departments. All such 
cases are cases of misdirected energy and zeal. Any business 
department connected with any educational corporation 
exists primarily to serve. The school plant does not belong 

^ These represent real cases, though it is perhaps best not to name the 

cities. 



S80 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

to the business department, but, after it is once constructed, 
to the educational department; and such relations as the 
business department maintains to the school plant, such 
as cleaning, heating, and repairs, are only for the purpose of 
making the plant more useful to the educational depart- 
ment. In the matter of the use of the buildings the educa- 
tional, and not the business department, should control. 

Even in the matter of repairs and changes, the business 
department should follow the wishes of the educational 
department rather than act independently, and with a 
view to making the largest use of the money available for 
such pm-poses. Still more, the amount of money spent on 
repairs and changes and upkeep should be as small as is 
possible, consistent with proper maintenance, in order that 
as large a percentage of the total school budget as is possible 
may be spent on the actual work of instruction, to facili- 
tate which is the prime purpose for which all else exists. 
In the matter of supplies, all supplies which relate to the 
work of instruction should, within the limits of the budget, 
be as requested by the educational department. 

If the superintendent of schools is worthy of his place, he 
will know as much or more about those needs of the schools 
which must pass through the business department as does 
the business manager, and the importance of making the 
superintendent the executive head of the entire school sys- 
tem, with coordinating power over all departments, sub- 
ject always to appeal to the board in case of fundamental 
disagreement, will be apparent. The superintendent, more 
than any one else connected with the school system, is 
interested in and responsible for the welfare and the success 
of the schools in the commimity, and the executive head 
of every department in the school system should be under 
his ultimate authority and control. 

In most matters, of course, a superintendent fit for his 



BUSINESS AND CLERICAL DEPARTMENT 381 

position will allow department heads large liberty of ac- 
tion, but in matters where the advice of the superintendent 
should prevail he should be given authority to see that it 
does so. It will be conducive to the peace and harmony 
and progress of the schools if it is clearly stated in the rules 
and regulations of the board that this is so.^ For this 
reason the business department has been placed where it is 
in each of the drawings (Figures 12, 13, and 14) showing 
proper relationships. Figure 15 shows a school organization 
where the business department has outrun all other depart- 
ments in the school system, the board and its committees 
working largely through this department, and in many 
matters the business manager (school clerk) has become 
the head of the school system. 

Intelligent expenditures. It is not the work of a busi- 
ness department to eflect economies at the expense of edu- 
cational efficiency. The work of public education is not 
primarily a process of saving, but rather one of spend- 
ing intelligently as much money as a community can af- 
ford to spend for schools.^ To obtain the best results, each 

1 Boards of education usually have as much difficulty in this matter as 
do business managers, — often more. This is perhaps only natural, as the 
business work represents the part of school administration which the board 
members are most capable of understanding. They can understand the 
business manager's point of view often better than that of the superin- 
tendent. The business organization is definite, follows well-established 
forms, and deals with expenditures and economies, while the educational 
organization is less definite and the economies and expenses it desires are 
often quite different from those which appeal to the layman. 

2 An important place where plant expenses might be reduced and money 
saved for educational purposes lies in utilizing student interest and labor. 
Such a plan requires a close cooperation between the business and educa- 
tional ends. The work at Gary, Indiana, is an excellent example of this, 
the pupils there having made much of the equipment in use. (See Burris's 
description, in Bulletin no. 18, 1914, U.S. Bureau of Education.) Another 
excellent example is the work of the pupils in the schools of Boise, Idaho, 
as described by Superintendent Meek, in Proceedings of National Education 
Association, 1913, pp. 172-78. 



382 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

dollar should be spent intelligently. Economies in one place 
are effected in order that the expenses in* other places 
may be larger. The only way to make better schools is to 
spend more money, in a more intelligent way. There is no 
other way. 

The savings which will be effected by centralized business 
control will be chiefly by eliminating the waste occasioned 
by irresponsible committee management,^ with its unintelli- 
gent control of school funds; by the purchase of materials 
and supplies at better figures; by the close supervision of 
contracts, to see that what is called for is obtained; by the 
holding to responsibility of all who have dealings with the 
school department; and by keeping always at hand, for ref- 
erence and for comparative study, a carefully itemized and 
classified statement of income and expenditures. This last 
phase of the work of a business department will be referred 
to again in Chapter XXVI. 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Look up and report upon the powers and duties of the business 
manager, or ofl5cial with equivalent title, in a few cities having such 
an officer. 

2. Draw up a plan for organizing the business work in (a) a city of 20,000 
inhabitants; (b) one of 75,000 inhabitants; and (c) in a city of 250,000 
inhabitants or more. 

3. Look up the methods used in handling the purchase and distribution 
of supplies in some city in your vicinity. 

4. What forms are usually followed in the ordering of supplies and the 
auditing and payment of bills for the same? 

d. Look up a few city systems of comparable size and calculate what 
percentage of the total expenditures in each goes for (a) general 
control; (6) instruction; (c) operation of plant; (d) maintenance of 
plant; and (e) libraries, health work, playgrounds, and other un- 
classified items, but not including outlays for new plant or payment 
on debt. 

^ In Oakland, California, the purchasing department did a business 
of $164,895.53 in 1914-15, at a cost of but $4080, and at a saving of 
from $30,000 to $40,000 over methods formerly in use. 



BUSINESS AND CLERICAL DEPARTMENT 383 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

Chancellor, W. E. Our City Schools ; Their Direction and Management. 
338 pp. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1908. 

Chapter III, on the business oflBcers and the board, is a good discussion of business 
management in a large city school system. 

Chicago, Illinois. Report of the Educational Commission. (1898.) 

Article II, on the business management of the board of education, is good on the 
functions of such a department. 

Monroe, Paul. Cyclopedia of Education. See "Business Management and 
Manager," vol. i, pp. 474-75. 
A short article on the work of this office. 
Moore, E. C. How New York City administers its Schools. 311 pp. World 
Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1913. 

Contains two chapters on buildings and supplies (Chapters XV and XVI), which 
cover a portion of the work of a business department. 

Portland, Oregon. Report of a Survey of the Public School System. (1914.) 
441 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1915. 

Chapter II, on the administrative organization, describes the business and educa- 
tional organization in this city, and gives a number of concrete examples of the results 
of improper organization. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of a Survey of the School System. 324 pp. 
1915. 

Chapter 11, on the organization of the school system, deals with the business aa 
w«ll as the educational organization. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE SCHOOL-PROPERTIES DEPARTMENT 

The superintendent of school properties. This depart- 
ment, naturally, is found only in the larger cities, as only 
in cities of some size will there be sufficient work on the 
properties of the school department to warrant the employ- 
ment of a special staff and the creation of a special depart- 
ment to care for it. In medium-sized cities the business 
manager or some similar official, or an architect on tempo- 
rary employment, working in conjunction with the superin- 
tendent of schools, must look after such work. In the smaller 
cities the superintendent of schools, together with his busi- 
ness clerk and one or more board committees, usually 
handle all work done in connection with the repair and up- 
keep of the school plant, an architect being employed only 
for the construction of new buildings which are to be erected. 
The work is uiteresting, and sometimes a school superin- 
tendent becomes so fascinated with such work that he vir- 
tually becomes a building superintendent and almost forgets 
that there is more important educational work to be done. 

The superintendent of properties, or superintendent of 
buildings as he is frequently designated, represents an im- 
portant recent development in city educational service. 
The plan has usually been to select some young man who 
has had good engineering training, and who has good judg- 
ment, some imagination, and good executive capacity, and 
then to put him in charge of the construction, alteration, 
and upkeep of the school plant. Under his direction will be 
the architectural, engineering, and mechanical forces em- 



SCHOOL-PROPERTIES DEPARTMENT 885 

ployed, and he will also supervise the carrying out of all 
contracts for yard work, the construction and repair of 
buildings, etc. The heating, cleaning, and fumigation of the 
buildings will also be placed under his direction, and hence 
to him should also be given power to employ, train, super- 
vise, and dismiss all school janitors, engineers, mechanics, 
day-laborers, etc., employed on work which is under hif 
control. 

Purpose and place of this department. The purpose of 
this department is to centralize, under one responsible and 
scientifically trained head, all work connected with the 
creation and maintenance of the school plant. Naturally, 
such a department head must work in close cooperation 
with the superintendent of schools, the health director, the 
superintendent of playgrounds, and the business manager, 
and in accordance with plans and estimates approved by 
the board of education. Instead of members of the board 
of education attempting to prepare plans for school build- 
ings, and instead of the superintendent of schools being com- 
pelled to devote much of his time to building construction 
and repair, and often to quarrel almost continuously with 
contractors to secure honest work, the board of education 
now turns all such expert work over to an expert to handle, 
reserving to itseK only the appointment of the expert, the 
appropriation of the necessary funds for each constructional 
undertaking recommended by him and by the superintend- 
ent of schools, the formal approval of the plans, and the 
formal awarding of the contracts. The board also retires 
from the employment of school janitors, mechanics, and 
workmen, making possible the transformation of janitor 
work from a political job to a trained and efficient service. 
The superintendent of schools, as the coordinating head 
of all departments, naturally should approve all large pro- 
posals and plans of the head of the property department, 



386 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the recourse in the case of a fundamental disagreement be- 
ing the submission of the matter to the board. As in the case 
of the business manager, though, a superintendent of schools 
will leave the superintendent of properties large liberty in 
all matters of detaU; the important point to be looked after 
being that constructional undertakings are along good edu- 
cational lines. 

In all smaller cities no such specialization of executive 
work can be provided for, and in such places the superin- 
tendent of schools, usually in conjunction with local archi- 
tects and builders and committees of the board of educa- 
tion, must help plan and oversee the work. 

Responsibility of the superintendent of schools. Whoever 
does this work, though, must, at least in a general way, over- 
see what is being done. In a way also he must direct the 
efforts of those who are doing it. The thousands of con- 
structional blunders which are in use as school buildings 
to-day in our cities and towns show the need of more at- 
tention to the scientific details of schoolhouse planning 
than has been given to the work by our superintendents in 
the past. To direct properly the efforts of those who are 
doing the work requires that the superintendent of schools, 
as well as the person drawing the plans, should be familiar 
with good hygienic standards, with the best practices in 
schoolhouse construction elsewhere, and also be somewhat 
famUiar with tendencies and probable future needs in 
public education. On the financial side, maintenance costs 
as well as first costs, and methods of paying for the new 
equipment, should both be considered. These points, which 
are generally applicable to all cities, will be touched on 
very briefly here. 

A new type of building needed. The time has come, 
everywhere, when the building of eight-room or twelve- 
room boxes, with windows regularly punctured in all of the 



SCHOOL-PROPERTIES DEPARTMENT 387 

outside walls, and with the only variation from typical 
classrooms being an office for the principal, usually on the 
second floor over the entrance hall, should stop. Such build- 
ings do not meet the needs of the present in public educa- 
tion, and will meet the needs of the future still less. With 
the rapid changes in the character of public education, the 
need for differentiations in school work, and the tendency 
of public education to undertake new educational and com- 
munity services, there is need to-day for the construction 
in our cities of a new type of school building. Should the 
Gary idea or some modification of it make important head- 
way, most of our present school buildings would have to 
be reconstructed or entirely replaced. 

To secure such buildings both the superintendent and the 
architect must be reasonably familiar with the best of our 
theory and practice in the field of schoolhouse construc- 
tion and sanitation. If the architect is not, then the duty 
devolves on the superintendent of seeing that he becomes 
acquainted with the main facts of such theory, and of in- 
sisting upon the incorporation of such in his plans. This 
involves a reasonably satisfactory knowledge of the scien- 
tific principles ^ which should control with reference to: — 

1. The location and orientation of school buildings. 

2. The material to be used in construction. 

3. Lighting arrangements. 

4. Heating and ventilation. 

5. Sanitary arrangements and equipment. 

6. Schoolhouse conveniences and equipment. 

7. Proper apportionment of space to different educational needs. 

8. Proper playground and yard space. 

The new Pittsburg type of building. The city of Pitts- 
burg offers one of the best examples of the application of 

^ No attempt will be made to state what these principles and standards 
are. For this the student must consult some standard work on schoolhouse 
hygiene. 



3S8 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

good principles in schoolhouse construction. After investi- 
gating the recent constructional work done in a number of 
our cities, and after having examined the Gary plan of 
instruction and building, the superintendent of buildings 
there finally worked out a standard form of sixteen-class- 
room building, such as would, first of all, meet the present 
and reasonably prospective needs of the city, and at the 
same time would be capable of conversion, almost without 
change, into a Gary-type school, should such later be de- 
cided upon as the desirable type. 

The instructions to architects, to guide them in the 
drawing-up and submission of plans for new elementary- 
school-buildings, cover the present needs for modern elemen- 
tary-school-building construction so well that we reproduce 
the schedule of what must be included.^ The architect 
is left free to submit his own ideas in the matter of the 
arrangement of rooms and the exterior design, so long as 
good hygienic standards are met and the building does 
not go higher than two stories and a basement. A building 
unit, as here used, is defined as not exceeding one thousand 
square feet of floor space. 



Schedule of Rooms 

^, ( 16 classrooms, 24' X 32' 6"» with cloak-rooms. .16 miits 

Classrooms T i j j i -^ 

(. 1 migraded room f miit 

r 1 kindergarten room "j 

17 . J , J 1 kindergarten wardrobe I , i .^ 

'^^'^^Sarten j i id„dergarten toilet f ^i '""'' 

I 1 kindergarten workroom J 



^ Program and Details of Construction and Equipment for Grade Schools, 
prepared by C. L. Woodbridge, superintendent of buildings. Revised edi- 
tion of February 8, 1914 (64 pp.), 25 of which are drawings of equipment 
required. A very valuable public document. 



SCHOOL-PROPERTIES DEPARTMENT^ 



Household 



I 



Industrial 
Training 



Administration 



, li units 



1 sewing-room 

1 wardrobe and locker-room 

1 fitting-room 

1 model bedroom 



1 Demonstration room I miit 



ll miits - 



3 units 



3 imits 



1 domestic-science room 
1 wardrobe and locker-room 
1 pantry 
1 model dining-room 



1 bench-room 1 

1 wardrobe and locker-room r l| units 

1 storage-room J 

1 demonstration room § unit 

1 drafting-room I 

1 wardrobe and locker-room r 1 unit 

. 1 storage-room J 

1 general office 
1 private office 
1 book storeroom 
1 physicians' room 
1 teachers' room 

1 janitors' supply-room 

2 voting-rooms 

1 girls' play-room as specified. 
1 boys* play-room as specified. 

1 assembly room, with seating capacity for 700. 

2 paved play-yards, each 11,000 square feet. This may 

include walks. 



2 units 



1 unit 



To the above schedule could be added with advantage 
a branch-library stack- and reading-room of one and one- 
quarter units, so as to provide for making the building even 
more a community center. Some of our city school sys- 
tems have also included shower-baths, and in a few places, 
a swimming-pool. A science room and a museum with suit- 
able equipment, and a special drawing-room, might also be 
added. Gary also includes a music studio. 



S90 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Larger use of school-buildings. Such a plan for an ele- 
mentary-school building at once suggests larger community 
usefulness for it than the mere seat-work instruction of 
children for a few hours a day. Such a building could be 
transformed, as all elementary-school plants should be, 
into a community-center institution, ministering to the needs 
of both the children and the adults of the community, both 
in the daytime and in the evening and for almost the entire 
year. The branch library should be open the year round, 
and should be so placed as to be capable of being entered 
from the outside, and at times when other parts of the build- 
ing are closed. The assembly hall, also, should be capable 
of use at any time without opening more than the entrance 
hall of the building. Both of these rooms naturally should 
be on the ground floor. The play-rooms and the play-yards 
should also be capable of use at times when the school- 
building proper is closed. The same should be true of the 
shower-baths and swimming-pool. 

The use of the school plant at other times and for other 
purposes than day schoolroom instruction may be said to 
be, as yet, in its beginnings with us, but the idea represents 
a desirable extension of the work and influence of the 
school. It means a large increase in the efficiency of the 
school plant, and much greater community-welfare returns 
for the money invested in the buildings, grounds, and 
equipment. The increased use of the plant and the in- 
creased community service rendered much more than com- 
pensate for the extra expense involved in extending the 
usefulness of the school. Evening school work, evening 
lectures, reading-rooms, vacation schools and children's 
playgrounds, recreational work for youths and adults, 
parents' meetings, civic club meetings, and social meet- 
ings of various kinds, are among the possibilities of a school 
plant arranged as in the Pittsburg schedule. Should the 



SCHOOIr-PROPERTIES DEPARTMENT 391 

future seem to make it desirable to do so, it would be pos- 
sible, with few additions to the plant, to establish " Gary- 
type" schools in these new Pittsburg buildings.^ 

Costs for buildings. The costs for school-buildings and 
grounds have experienced a marked increase within the 
past two decades, due in part to better material construc- 
tion, due in part to the introduction of better hygienic stand- 
ards, due in part to the introduction of new types of in- 
struction which have required special rooms and equipment, 
and due in part to the demand for larger playground space 
for the children. These developments and additions we now 
regard as necessities. As a result the expense for buildings 
is likely to increase rather than grow less in the future, 
and this increased expense the public must be prepared to 
meet. The more the school makes itself of service to the 
community, and the better the community understands 
what the school is doing, the more willingly will the in- 
creased expense be met. 

Payment for by tax or by bonding. There is one phase of 
the cost of a school-building which ought to be considered 
much more carefully by our American cities than now seems 
to be done, and that is the question of paying for the build- 
ing by tax at the time of construction, or of deferring the 
payment to some future time by issuing bonds. The prac- 

1 The Gary plan (see Bulletin by Burns) in a way arose as a means of 
facing a school situation created by the very rapid growth of a new city, 
where every department of the city needed funds for the development of 
its work. By increasing somewhat the cost of each plant, for larger grounds 
and for many special rooms, each building was made to care for about 
twice the ordinary number of pupils, thus materially reducing the initial 
per-capita cost for the school plant. Each building there is a school, a work* 
shop, a playground, a city library, and a civic and community center all 
in one. 

The plan employed in Boise, Idaho, and described by Meek in Proceedings 
of the National Education Association, 1913, pp. 172-78, of using pupils to 
help in construction and in the furnishing of school equipment, besides 
being highly educative, also tends materially to reduce costs. 



392 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



$172,iJ[)0 



eioo.ooa 



$100,000 




Fio. 33. PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST COST FOR A SCHOOL BUILDING 

This drawing shows the results of building a $100,000 school-buildiug, and pay- 
ing for it by the issuance of five per cent school bouds, on a five- to twenty-five- 
year basis. In a city assessed at $25,000,000, it would have cost the taxpayers 
only forty cents on the one hundred dollars of assessed valuation to have paid for 
the building in a single year, or twenty cents on the one hundred dollars had the 
cost been spread over the two-year period covered by the erection of the build- 
ing. The ultimate tax cost will be sixty-nine cents on the one hundred dollars. 

tice of deferring payment to the future is becoming more 
common, and, though still quite limited, has recently shown 
a marked tendency to increase.^ In some of our cities, due 
to peculiar conditions, such deferment may be almost a 
necessity, but the practice is in many ways undesirable, 
and is often entirely unnecessary where resorted to.^ In 

^ Up to 1909 the percentage of school debt to other city debt was but 
2.2 per cent, and with a total outstanding school debt for all cities having 
a population of 30,000 or over of $48,282,260. Since then the school debt 
has increased faster even than the municipal debt, being 2.6 per cent in 
1912, and representing a total of $74,949,343, — an increase in school 
bonded debt of 52 per cent in three years. 

Our city school corporations have, however, been more careful in the 
matter of bonded debt than any other department of our municipaHties. 
Some cities have always paid for their school buildings as erected, and have 
never issued bonds. See table on "Gross, Funded, and Floating Debts of 
Cities," in the U.S. Census Bureau's annual publication entitled Financial 
Statistics of Cities, for a list of cities having no bonded school debt. 

2 "The large initial cost for fireproof buildings, and the plan of paying 



SCHOOL-PROPERTIES DEPARTMENT 393 

addition to the larger costs involved, the deferred-payment 
plan puts a mortgage on the future which is likely to prove 
heavy to carry. ^ Especially is this the case with elemen- 
tary-school-buildings of a type which will require large 
maintenance costs, and after from twenty-five to thirty-five 
years must be replaced. 

Large future educational needs. If we could see anything 
to indicate that our American cities will, in the near future, 
reach the end in the development of their school systems, 
and that, say in twenty-five to forty years from now, they 
will have all the needed school-buildings constructed, then 
the plan of deferring payment by issuing bonds and spread- 
ing the costs over a period of years would not be so 
objectionable. ^ 

Those who have studied the problem most, however, 
can see no such end of the process. On the contrary, with 

for them all in one year by a tax, is what makes school building in Portland 
seem so costly. At the present time Portland needs about sixty new class- 
rooms a year for its elementary schools alone. Soon the number may be 
seventy, eighty, and perhaps even more. 

"The large cost, however, is more apparent than real. On the basis of 
the present assessment of property in the school district, the initial cost for 
sixty classrooms in fireproof construction will raise the yearly tax rate for 
schools in the district only about one half mill (5 cents on the $100 of 
assessed property) ; and a tax of 1| mills (15 cents on the $100) will pay for 
the sixty fireproof classrooms complete, with no bonds and no future inter- 
est charges. The rate will probably never exceed this, as increases in values 
will counterbalance the increased number of classrooms required. In 
other words, to build and pay for, at once and -wnthout bonds, a large, 
reinforced-concrete, 22-classroom building, such as the new Failing School, 
would cost a citizen only about 55 cents for every $1000 of property for 
which he is assessed, — a trifle more than the cost of four good cigars." 
(Portland School Survey Report, chap, xii.) 

^ What each city should have is the authorization to levy an annual 
building tax, sufficient to pay for a building in two or three years, and the 
authority to borrow if needed for temporary purposes. An annual building 
tax of 1^ to 2^ cents on the $100 would provide for the ordinary building 
needs of most cities. 

" See also pages 101-03 of Ayres' Report on the Springfield, Illinois, 
School Survey on the question of bonding for school-buildings. 



394 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the great change which is taking place in our conceptions a* 
to the nature and place of public education, there is every 
indication that public education will in time become the 
greatest business of a city or a state. In a quarter to a half 
a century from now public education is almost certain to be 
extended into fields of constructive service which we now 
but dimly imagine. There is every probability, also, that 
everything that tends to conserve child life and advance 
child welfare, and hence the welfare of the race, as well as 
most of those efforts relating to the improvement of condi- 
tions surrounding adults and home life, will in time come 
to be regarded as a legitimate function of our systems of 
public education. If such should prove to be the case, 
then those cities will be best able to meet the large edu- 
cational demands of the future, and in a really large way, 
which do not handicap themselves too heavily with bonded 
school debt now. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. A good school-building is sometimes said to be the combined work 
of an artist, an engineer, a physician and hygiene expert, a school 
administrator, and an economist. Indicate the place of each in 
planning and erecting a school-building. 

2. Do you think the State should lay down hygienic and constructional 
standards which all commimities should meet, and make provision 
for state inspection and approval of all plans for new school-build- 
ings and all major alterations in old ones? Should the state over- 
sight extend to the architecture ? Why ? 

3. Why is it particularly desirable that the head of the property depart- 
ment should be given the employment, control, and dismissal of the 
school janitors? In a smaller city where would you place such control? 

4. Is it desirable to employ a regular school architect or to throw open 
competition, under such restrictions as in Pittsburg, to any respon- 
sible architect anywhere? 

5. Is it desirable to have a standard type of school-building, or to eC^ 
courage individuality in the appearance of schools? 

6. Should there be manual-training and domestic-science rooms and 
equipment in each building, or only at certain "centers"? If teachers 
or pupils have to move, which is the better plan? 



SCHOOL-PROPERTIES DEPARTMENT 395 

7. What would you think of having music and drawing studios in the 
building ? Swimming-pools ? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Proper standards as to schoolhouse site, and the location and orienta- 
tion of a school-building. 

2. Size, lighting, and equipment of a standard classroom. 

3. School-toilet facilities. 

4. School baths. 

5. School heating and ventilation. 
3. Evening lectures at schoolhouses. 

7. Recreational work at schoolhouses. 

8. Schools as civic and social centers. 

9. Unit costs for school-buildings of different types. 

10. The Gary building plans and costs. 

11. The sanitary problems of a schoolhouse. 

12. Fumigation of books and buildings. 

13. Qualifications and duties of a school janitor. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Bums, W. P. The School System of Gary, Indiana. Bulletin no. 18, 1914^ 
U.S. Commissioner of Education. 49 pp., illustrated. 
Gives pictures and plans of buildings, and describes their use. 
Butte, Montana. Report of a Survey of the School System. (1914.) 

Chapter IX, on "School Buildings and Equipment," points out the defects and 
needs of the city, and describes a needed reorganization of the school plant. 

Chancellor, W. E. Our Schools; Their Direction and Management. 338 pp. 
D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, 1908. 

Chapter IV, on "The City School-Building," and Chapter V, on "Needed Equip- 
ment," offer many good suggestions. 

Chicago, Illinois. Report of the Educational Commission. (1899.) 

Chapter XX, on "School-Buildings and Architecture," contains a number of good 
recommendations as to construction. 

Curtis, H. S. Education through Play. 359 pp. Macmillan Co., New York, 
1915. 

Contains good chapters on American school playgrounds (Chap, vii), the school 
playgrounds at Gary (Chap, ix), and the school as a social center (Chap. xv). 

Dresslar, F. B. School Hygiene. 369 pp. Macmillan Co., New York, 1913. 
An excellent book on the construction and care of school buildings. Should be in 
every superintendent's collection. Good bibliographies. 

Dresslar, F. B. American Schoolhouses. Bulletin no. 5, 1910, U.S. Bureau 
of Education, 132 pp., 267 plates, and bibliography. 

A very important document, picturing and describing the best that has beeo done 
in American city schoolhouse construction. 



396 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. Administration of Public Education in the 
United States. 

Chapters XI and XII, on the details of schoolhouse construction, contains some 
good suggestions. 

Eliot, Chas. W. "A Good Form of Urban School Organization"; in the 
Report of the U.S, Commissioner of Education, 1903, vol, ii, pp. 
1356-62. 

Outlines the form of organization in St. Louis, and the work of the different de- 
partments. 

Hanmer, L. F. " The Schoolhouse Evening Center; — What It Is, What II 
Cost, and What It Pays "; in Proceedings of National Education As- 
sociation, 1913, pp. 58-64. 

Describes an evening in a Massachusetts city, and gives some data as to mainte- 
nance costs and benefits. 

Perry, C. A. "Social-Center Ideas in New Elementary-School Archi- 
tecture"; in American School Board Journal. (April, 1912.) 

A survey of newer elementary-schoolhouses. Provision for adults as well as 
children. 

Perry, C. A. "School as a Social Center"; in Monroe's Cyclopedia of Edu- 
cation, vol. V, pp. 260-67. 

A very good summary of the movement in the United States and Europe, with many 
citations to work attempted in different cities. 

Perry, C. A. Wider Use of the School Plant. 423 pp. Charities Publication 
Committee, New York, 1911. 

A very important work on evening schools, vacation schools and playgrounds, 
social and recreational centers, public lectures, and a larger use of school-buildings. 

Portland, Oregon. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. (1913.) 
441 pp. Reprinted by Worid Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 
1915. 

Chapter XII deals largely with the financial aspect of the building and sites prob* 
lem in a large and rapidly growing city, while Chapter XIII is a good presentation o' 
the defects and needs of the school plant from the point of view of good standards in 
school hygiene. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of a Survey of the School System. 324 pp. 
1915. 
Chapter X, on the school plant, is a good analysis of the schooI*buiIding situation. 

Wirt, W. A. "Utilization of the School Plant"; in Proceedings of National 
Education Association, 1912, pp. 492-97. 

A good article on obtaining higher efficiency by larger use of the school plant. Com- 
pares costs for Gary with South Chicago parks. 

The City School as a Community Center. 75 pp. Good biblio- 
graphy. Tenth Year Book of the National Society for the Study of 
Education, part i. Univ. Chic. Press, 1911. 

A valuable document. Describes the public lecture system of New York City and 
Cleveland, and the Rochester civic and social centers. Also contains articles ou 
vacation playgrounds, organized athletics, evening recreational centers, the ccn- 
munity-used school, and home and school associations. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

AUXILIARY EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 

It is the purpose in this chapter to refer very briefly to 
three auxiliary educational agencies which seem destined, 
sooner or later, to become an integral part of our public 
educational organization. These three agencies are the public 
library, the public playground, and the school-garden move- 
ment. Both the library and the playground are now some- 
what generally under the control of separate boards, and 
the school-garden movement is largely fostered by individ- 
uals and societies, but a well-organized twentieth -century 
school system could direct the work of each more economi- 
cally and more efficiently than can be done if each is to 
remain under separate administrative organizations. 

1. The public library 

The public library arose with us as a separate institution^ 
and still quite generally retains its separate organization^ 
The library board administers the library, and the school 
board administers the schools. Between the two for a long 
time there was no attempt at cooperation. The school im- 
parted instruction, while the library loaned books to mem- 
bers or to the public which came to borrow. 

Efforts toward cooperation. The beginning of coopera- 
tion between the two agencies dates from the attempts made 
by the free public library of Worcester, Massachusetts, in 
1879, to bring about a closer connection between the public 
library and the public schools of that city. After about 
fifteen years the idea began to attract the attention of both 



398 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

schoolmen and librarians, as each began to see that both 
were engaged in educational undertakings which would be 
more productive of results if the two worked in closer 
cooperation. In 1897 the National Education Association 
appointed a "Committee on the Relations of Public Li- 
braries to Public Schools," and reports were made on the 
subject to the meetings of the Association in 1898 ^ and 
1899.2 

Since that time an earnest effort has been made by many- 
school superintendents and by many public librarians to 
secure a closer cooperation in educational effort, and much 
valuable work has been accomplished. Much more still re- 
mains to be done. The librarian often feels that his efforts at 
cooperation are not appreciated by the school, and that the 
school authorities are uninterested and apathetic. This is 
often true. The school authorities, on the other hand, some- 
times make the same complaint of the public librarian. The 
library often lacks an appreciation of the standpoint of the 
school in the matter of educating the reading public, and 
the school, on its part, lacks an appreciation of the peculiar 
community problems which the library tries to solve. On 
the whole, however, the public librarians have shown a 
more cooperative spirit than have the schoolmen. Espe- 
cially is this true with reference to state traveling libraries 
and county library work on the one hand, and county and 
town educational authorities on the other. 

Administrative control. The trouble arises in part from 
a lack of coordinated effort, due to separate organization 
and control, and there is every reason to think that a closer 
administrative organization will in time be effected. The 
mission of these two community educational agencies is the 
same, and their object is similar if not identical. Each is 

^ See Proceedings of National Education Association, 1898, pp. 1014-28. 
2 ibid., 1899, pp. 452-529. 



AUXILIARY EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 399 

working in its own way to solve the same problems of com- 
munity education, the library being a supplemental and 
continuing agency for what the school begins. There would 
be Uttle need for the library were it not for the school, and 
the school fails in part in its mission of education if it fails 
to get its pupils into working relations with the public 
library. 

In a few cities the library and the schools are operated 
by one board, the board of education being the board of 
control for both the public library and the public schools.^ 
In such the librarian is appointed by and is responsible to 
the board of education, and holds a position somewhat 
coordinate with that of superintendent of schools. In a few 
other cities the school department is represented, ex officio, 
on the library board by the superintendent of schools or the 
president of the board of education. In by far the great 
majority of our cities, though, there is no governmental 
imion, all cooperation being by mutual agreements between 
the public librarian and the superintendent of schools or 
other school authorities. 

As our city school systems become better organized as 
educational undertakings, and eliminate personal and party 
politics from their management; as executive heads are 
appointed and given control of educational functions, with- 
out continual interference on the part of school boards or 
members of school boards; as the school gradually organ- 
izes its instruction, and enlarges the scope of its work; 
and as school executives come to the work better prepared, 
and take a larger view of their work; it is probable that 
there will be much less objection to a closer administrative 

* Indianapolis forms a good example of this form of organization, the 
public library there being regarded merely as one of the many educational 
agencies of the community. In commission-governed cities this is com- 
monly the condition. In Sacramento one commissioner is in charge of the 
schools, library, parks, playgrounds, and public morals. 



I 



400 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

union of the library and the school than would at present 
be the case. Our public library boards have been, in the 
past, much freer from personal and party politics than have 
our school boards, and until the people are ready to put 
school organization and administration on a higher basis 
it is probable that the library will prefer to retain its sep- 
arate organization. Such being the case, a provision by 
which the superintendent of schools should be, ex qfficioy 
a member of the public library board, with full power to 
speak and to vote, would be a desirable amendment to in- 
corporate into the present laws providing for the creation 
of city library boards. 

Unity of the work of library and schooL The two insti- 
tutions, library and school, really belong together. With the 
development of the community-center schoolhouse, with 
a branch public library in each large school building, a se- 
lected reference library of some size in each intermediate and 
high school, and a small room library in each elementary- 
school classroom, it is desirable, in the interests of effi- 
ciency and economy, that the library work should be under 
one organization and control. If the librarian in each ele- 
mentary, intermediate, and high-school building has had 
some library training and is officially connected with the 
central public library, rather than with the school, the re- 
lations which will be established between the school instruc- 
tion and permanent library interests are much more likely 
to become deep and lasting. 

The library in the future school. It will, without doubt, 
be one of the missions of the twentieth-century school to 
direct the outside reading of the child, to cultivate an ap- 
preciation for good books, and to teach pupils how to use 
books as tools. The literature teacher in a public school is 
in a sense a children's librarian, and her classroom should 
be in reality a small library for special purposes. The school 



AUXILIARY EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 401 

library enlarges the teacher's possibilities for usefulness, and 
a close cooperation between the public library and the school 
enlarges it still more. To-day both school ^nd library are 
working at the problem, each somewhat independently of the 
other, with a consequent lack of the highest effectiveness 
and a certain duplication of effort and expense. In time, 
as the two institutions come into closer union and coopera- 
tion; as the library extends its work downward into the 
schools, and as the schools extend their work upward and 
outward into the problems of adult education and civic life, 
the two institutions probably will render more effective 
community service if placed under one board of control 
and united as parts of a community educational service.^ 

2. The Public Playgrounds 
The public playground represents a relatively recent ef- 
fort to organize, along healthful and educational lines, the 
natural play-activities of children. Probably the first 
playground organized especially for children was the one 
provided by the Children's Mission in Boston, in 1886, by 
placing "three piles of yellow sand" in its yard for the 
children of the neighborhood to play in. The following year 
eleven piles, — one in a school-yard, — with matrons to 
supervise the play, were provided. Two summer play- 
grounds were established privately in Philadelphia in 1893, 
a sand garden in Providence in 1894, and a summer play- 
ground in Chicago in 1897. The first public playground was 

^ At Gary, where the school employs specially trained teachers to 
direct the outside reading of children, who meet each child for a thirty- 
minute period on alternate days, and where sets of books and classroom 
libraries are in use, it has been foimd that "the library maintenance and 
salary-cost per book circulated and read is about one fourth of a cent, only 
five per cent of said cost in public libraries. The life of a book circulated 
in sets, under the direct control of the special teachers, is ten times that of 
the usual library circulating book." (Superintendent W. A. Wirt, in PrO' 
ceedings of National Education Association, 1912, p. 494.) 



402 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

organized in New York City in 1898. By 1911, 257 cities 
reported 1543 playgrounds as in operation, and 75 other 
cities known to have playgrounds did not report. 

Playground organization. In many of our cities play- 
ground commissions have been created to provide play 
facilities for children, and much valuable work has been 
done. Old parks have been enlarged and their usefulness 
extended, new ones have been acquired, special municipal 
playgrounds have been provided and equipped, and play 
directors have been employed and installed. The influence 
of the work is seen in the general demand that public schools 
be provided with larger and better playground facilities. 

Even more than in the case of library work, separate 
organization and direction of public playgrounds involves 
both an unnecessary duplication of effort and a very ma- 
terial increase in expenses. A municipal playground is 
expensive both to provide and to maintain, and it is in use 
but a small fraction of the time, while playgrounds organized 
as a part of the school plant, and run in connection with the 
regular day and vacation schools, can be utilized practically 
all of the time. By organizing play as a part of the regular 
school curriculum, as is being done now by a few of our 
city school systems, and then providing regular play teach- 
ers for the schools, the school playground can be utilized 
constantly from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, thus providing 
about ten times the play facilities which can be provided 
for under the municipal playground plan, and at less cost. 

Superintendent Wirt, of the Gary, Indiana, schools, in 
a paper read before the National Education Association, 
in 1912 {Proceedings, pp. 492-95) compared costs for the 
two types of playgrounds, as follows : — 

The city of Chicago has a most elaborate system of recreation 
parks and field houses. Selecting the eleven most successful parks 
of the South Side Commission, we may compare the total cost and 



AUXILIARY EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 



403 



use of the eleven parks with the cost and use of the one Gary- 
school plant. Note that the attendance of the parks is the total, 
not the average for the eleven parks. Also note that the cost of 
the school includes the furnishing of complete school facilities for 
2700 children, in addition to the social and recreational features. 



Items 


Totals Jar 


Eleven parks 


One Gary school 




800,000 

$2,000,000 

$440,000 

310,000 

2,000,000 

1,335,000 

725,000 

270,000 

70,000 

600,000 

520,000 


20,000 


First cost, less land 


$300,000 


Annual maintenance 

Annual attendance — 

Indoor gymnasium 


$100,000 
1,000,000 


Outdoor gymnasium 

Shower baths 


2,000,000 
500,000 


Swimming-pool 


300,000 


Assembly halls 


1,000,000 


Clubrooms 


50,000 


Reading-rooms 


1,000,000 


Lunch-rooms 


20,000 







Importance of directed play. Play is essential to the proper 
development of all children, and play under good conditions 
may be said to be a child's fundamental right. The child's 
physical, intellectual, social, and moral development in part 
hinges about proper facilities for play. Organized and di- 
rected play is worth much more than unorganized and un- 
directed play, and the social and moral conditions surround- 
ing children during such organized and directed play are 
much better. If directed play is provided as a regular part 
of the school curriculum, as it should be in cities, the work 
can be so arranged as to be not only of value in itself but 
also of service in the general education of children. If 
organized in connection with the public school work and 
correlated with the work in physical training and health 
teaching, and especially with the vacation school work,^ 

* In the conduct of the summer vacation schools, as at present organized, 
directed play forms a very important part of the instruction provided. 



404 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

it can be made much more effective educationally than 
can ever be the case when organized separately under a 
playground commission. It will not only be more effective, 
but it can also be organized and conducted at less expense. 

3. School gardening 

School gardening has for some time been a feature of 
public education in European cities, but represents a very 
recent and as yet but imperfectly accepted idea in our 
American cities. The first school garden in America prob- 
ably was the Wild Flower Garden at Roxbury, Massa- 
chusetts, established by private citizens in 1891. The school 
gardens established by the National Cash Register Com- 
pany, at Dayton, Ohio, in 1897, were also among the first 
in this country. Many cities now have school gardens and 
school gardening associations; usually fostered by indi- 
viduals or organizations, and conducted independently of 
any official connection with the schools. Such organiza- 
tions are doing for the school children a work of large edu- 
cational importance, and one that should be done by the 
schools instead of by private associations and individuals. 

School gardening and the school. What is accomphsbed 
by such organized work is of value, to children of certain types 
of very great value, but it reaches only a limited number and 
cannot be so effectively done as it would be if organized 
as a part of the regular instruction of the schools. School 
gardening is a legitimate and a very desirable addition to 
a city school course of study, and should be given a definite 
place and time. The work in home gardening, too, should 

Should our cities organize a twelve-months school, as many tendencies seem 
to indicate as a probable line of future city development, organized play 
will form a still more important part of school instruction, and the desira- 
bility of a close connection between school and playground will be empha- 
sized. The large use of municipal playgrounds now is at times when the 
regular school is not in session. 



AUXILIARY EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 405 

be closely connected with the school gardening work. A 
supervisor of school gardens should be appointed, in cities 
of thirty to forty thousand inhabitants or over, to plan and 
direct the work, to secure and look after vacant lots to be 
used for school gardens, to prepare and issue bulletins on 
the work for the general information of teachers, parents, 
and children, and to meet with the teachers responsible for 
the work in each school. 

It is in the cities that work in school gardening is of most 
importance, from an educational and aesthetic point of view. 
To many city children it is almost the only contact they 
ever get with nature. To some it is a means of education in 
which they become deeply interested, and to many it means 
good and healthful exercise in the fresh air and sunlight. 
The nature-study value of the observation of how plants 
germinate, grow, and mature, the lessons in social coopera- 
tion which gardening can be made to teach, the industrial 
experience coming from the money value of the products 
raised, the efforts to excel developed by competition, the 
withdrawal of children from the games and vices of the 
street, and the possibilities of carrying through a vacation 
interest in such work, all are features of the school garden- 
ing movement which are of much moral as well as educa- 
tional value. 

New educational agencies and purposes. The utilization 
of the library, the playground, and the school garden as 
educational agencies represents only another phase of the 
rapidly growing purpose to change our city school systems 
from mere instructional institutions into constructive child- 
welfare institutions, — to change the school from a place 
merely for intellectual training into a place where a child 
can work and play and grow and live a life that, for him, 
is as real as any adult life can be. This requires the develop- 
ment of many new educational activities, the utilization of 



406 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the entire educational equipment of a city in the most effi- 
cient manner possible, and the provision of those saving 
and uplifting influences which are especially needed to meet 
the difficulties and dangers of modern city life. Careful 
health supervision and instruction, an intelligent and con- 
structive administration of an attendance department, in- 
structive and competitive school gardening, organized and 
directed play, and a full utilization of the public library 
as an educational agency, — these represent the more im- 
portant of the saving and uplifting influences which should 
be utilized more fully in the work of public education. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. What form of organization and control is followed for the public 
libraries in your State? 

2. What types of cooperation exist between the public libraries and the 
schools in your State? 

S. What relation do the school libraries bear to the public library col- 
lections? 

4. If the school playground is more economical and more effective edu- 
cationally, how do you account for the rapid development of muni- 
cipal, as opposed to the school playgrounds? 

5. Why has it usually been easier to secure playground development 
through a playground commission than through a board of education? 

■ 6. In what does the moral and aesthetic value of school gardening 
consist? 
7. What relation does the fuller utilization of the newer educational 
agencies mentioned in this chapter bear: (a) to the question of the 
economy of time in education? (6) to the question of a longer school 
day and week? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. What is the best type of work being done in your State by the public 
schools in developing a taste for books and introducing pupils to good 
literature? 

2. Look up and make a report on: 

(a) Notable work being done in library and school cooperation. 

(h) Municipal playgrounds. 

(c) School playgrounds. 

(d) Vacation schools and vacation-school instruction. 

(e) The school-gardening movement. 



AUXILIARY EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES 407 

(J) The Gary plan for handling directed play. 
(^) The course of study in play. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Chadsey, C. E. "What does Each, the Library and the Public School, con- 
tribute to the Making of the Educated Man?" In Proceedings of 
National Education Association, 1909, pp. 860-63. 
A good short article on library and school cooperation. 

Curtis, H. S. Education through Play. 359 pp. Macmillan Co., New York, 
1915. 

Contains good chapters on play, playgrounds in Europe and America, the play- 
grounds of Gary, and play in the curriculum. A good book. 

Curtis, H. S. The Reorganized School Playground. 28 pp. Bulletin no. 40, 
1913, U.S. Bureau of Education. 
Good directions for equipping and utilizing school yards as playgrounds. 
Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. The Administration of Public Education in 
the United States. 

Chapter XXXI, on the widening sphere of public education, presents a good brief 
summary of many movements for the improvement and extension of the educational 
service in our cities. Good bibliography at end of chapter. 

Green, M. L. Among School Gardens. 388 pp.; illustrated. Charities Pub- 
lication Committee, New York, 1910. 

A practical guide to the work. Chapter I gives the evolution of the school-garden 
movement. Good lists of reference books. 

Jewell, J. R. Agricultural Education. 140 pp.. Bulletin no. 2, 1907, U.S. 
Bureau of Education. 
Pages 23-46 contain good information relating to school gardens. 
Monroe, Paul, (editor). Cyclopedia of Education. See articles on "Libraries,** 
vol. IV, pp. 7-19; "Playgrounds," vol. rv, pp. 728-30; and "Gardens, 
School," vol. Ill, pp. 10-12. 
Good short descriptive articles. 

Perry, C. A. Wider Uses of the School Plant. 423 pp. Charities Publication 
Committee, New York, 1911. 

A very important work on evening schools, vacation schools and playgrounds, 
social and recreation centers, and larger use of schoolhouses. 

Playground and Recreation Association of America. Proceedings of the 
Annual Playground Congresses. 

Contain many good articles. See also the magazine. Playground, issued by this 
association. 

Wirt, W. A. "Utilization of a School Plant"; in Proceedings of National 
Education Association, 1912, pp. 492-95. 
A brief description of the full and economical utilizations made at Gary. 



CHAPTER XXV 

COSTS, FUNDS, AND ACCOUNTING 

Constantly increasing costs. It will be evident, from 
what has been said in the preceding chapters, that an effi- 
cient school system must cost more money — oftentimes 
much more money — than does the ordinary city school sys- 
tem of to-day. Practically every addition made to a school 
system with a view to increasing its efficiency means the 
expenditure of additional funds for equipment and main- 
tenance. In any growing American city the school system 
is continually calling for increased funds, and in even a 
relatively stationary city a school system that is trying to 
keep up with the progress of American education is also 
continually asking for increased appropriations for equip- 
ment and maintenance. 

An expensive school system may not be an efficient school 
system, but a cheap school system cannot be an efficient 
school system, viewed from the larger community point of 
view. The only way to make better schools is to spend, in 
an intelligent manner, a constantly increasing amount of 
money on them. If a school system is to run on cheap lines 
it cannot be highly efficient. Either its teachers or officers 
will lack in grasp and render inefficient service, or, if these 
happen to be efficient in spite of the low compensation paid, 
the system will be inefficient in that it will minister, to only 
a limited extent, to the larger community needs. 

A cheap school system. If a cheap system of instruction 
is desired the school system should not be expanded, 
the courses of instruction should not be enriched, and no 



COSTS, FUNDS, AND ACCOUNTING 409 

effort should be made to minister to new educational needs. 
An eight-year elementary-school course, based wholly on 
textbook instruction; large classes; no kindergartens, man- 
ual training, or domestic-science instruction; and an old- 
line book-type of high-school course (languages, history, 
English, mathematics, and textbook science) is by all 
means the cheapest type of a school system to provide. 
Teachers for such instruction cost less; classes can be larger; 
few if any special supervisors will be needed; there will be 
but small expense for teaching equipment, and no extra 
expense in building school-buildings (as in Pittsburg) for 
rooms for any form of special instruction; large school- 
grounds will not be needed; and overhead expenses will 
be reduced to a minimum. A teacher, a classroom, some 
seats, a stove and some fuel, a few maps and books, and a 
small expense for paper, pencils, ink, and chalk, represent 
about the equipment needed for such instruction. 

The poorer the public schools, too, the larger the number 
of parents who will patronize the private and the parochial 
schools, and for the children of such the city will not need 
to build schools, employ teachers, or incur any expense 
whatever. Of course, there should be no attempt to en- 
force attendance laws in a city maintaining such a school 
system. Retardation will not be objectionable in such a 
school system, because the pupils stay down in the grades 
where the instruction costs less, and a smaller percentage 
ever enter the high school where the instruction costs more. 
An examination of census, attendance, and retardation data; 
salary lists and classified expenditures; and the published 
courses of study for some of our American cities would seem 
to indicate that, consciously or unconsciously, a number of 
our cities are still maintaining such a cheap type of school 
system. An examination of such items for the present, 
compared with similar items for a decade ago, however, 



410 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

indicate marked progress in the matter of expenditures, 
and hence in educational consciousness, during the past 
ten years. 

The problem of increased funds. The administration of 
public education cannot be made a money-saving process. 
If it were it would be best to turn education over entirely 
to private agencies, and thus save the entire expense. On 
the contrary, the proper administration of public education 
with us to-day calls for the intelligent expenditure of as 
large an amoimt of public money as a community can af- 
ford. As new needs arise this amoimt must be increased 
and the scope of the school system must be extended. The 
amount of money expended must also be increased to meet 
the rising costs for all kinds of service, supplies, and ma- 
terials, and to satisfy the public demand for a better and 
more sanitary type of equipment for the schools. 

The problem which faces the management of every city 
school system to-day is how to secure, in competition with 
the increasing demands of all other city departments, the 
funds needed to meet the constantly expanding needs of the 
schools. Upon the finance committee of the board of educa- 
tion, in a general way, and upon the superintendent of 
schools in particular, rests the burden of proving to the 
community the needs of the school system in order that the 
necessary funds may be obtained. The superintendent of 
schools who fails to put his shoulders to the collar and pull 
hard at this point in his work is one who may set the develop- 
ment of his school system back in a way that it will require 
his successor years of hard work to bring up. Every city 
department is pushing for additional appropriations, and 
unless the school appropriations are separated by law from 
city council control, the superintendent must push also to 
retain his proper share. To secure larger funds he must 
amply prove his larger needs. 



COSTS, FUNDS, AND ACCOUNTING 411 

Funds independent of the council. To protect the schools 
from being given less than their proper share of funds a num- 
ber of our States have given to a few or to all of the city 
school systems in the State the right to determine, usually 
within certain legal limits, the amount of school funds 
needed, and to certify the same for levy without interference 
by any city authority. ^ There has been a marked increase in 
such authorization within the past fifteen years, as well as 
several recent attempts on the part of city officials to break 
down such separate authorization. The rather common 
tendency of city governing authorities is to reduce the 
school department to a branch of the city government, and 
then to subordinate the interests of the schools to the in- 
terests of the patronage departments — fire, police, streets, 
water, sewers — of the city. The more political the city 
government the greater is the danger to the schools. In 
cities operating under a commission form of government the 
results are likely to be much better than when a city council 
has to be dealt with. 

The chief argument for city control of the school tax is 
that it unifies the taxing power, and gives one central 
representative body control over all expenditures. If the 
schools are to be free, why not the parks and the health and 
the police? The answer must be that the schools are too 

^ St. Louis and Kansas City form good examples of cities in which the 
school boards have been given full power to levy the school tax, up to a 
limit of sixty cents on the one hundred dollars of valuation. Ohio, Kansas, 
and CaUfomia are good examples of States which have given the city school 
authorities such independence by general statute, the limit being twelve 
mills in Ohio, twenty mills in Kansas, and thirty mills in Cahfomia. Bard, 
Moore, and Greenwood (see References) present strong arguments for this 
method of handling the school-tax levy. Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, 
Toledo, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Duluth, Denver, 
Omaha, Portland, and Seattle are examples of other cities in which the 
school-tax levy is in the hands of the school board. Most of the Western 
States have enacted general laws giving the taxing power to school boards, 
as have also a number of Southern States. 



412 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

important for the future of our national life to trust them 
to the whims and trades and log-rolling of a political body, 
elected with no reference to school administration/ and 
that in but few of our cities has the sense of civic duty been 
such as to enable the people to place the schools on an equal 
footing with other city interests when party politics and 
personal influence are brought to bear.^ Even when thor- 
oughly honest and actuated by good motives, the members 
of a city council lack that close touch wi+h educational 
problems which will enable them to appreciate the large 
future importance of expenditures for schools, when the 
school needs come in competition with the pressing and 
more immediate needs of other city departments. The 
imity of the city tax-levy is an argument of no importance. 
No other city department, except possibly the health de- 
partment,^ represents any large future interest. Even it is 
not coordinate with the government, the home, and the 
church, as is the school. 

The experience of our American cities indicates clearly 

1 "It is commonly recognized that education cannot be reduced to the 
same system of administrative control as can be followed in dealing with 
health, police, and fire departments of a city, because the school is an 
institution coordinate in dignity and importance with the government, 
the church, and the family, and must not be subordinated to any one of 
them. For its work it requires freedom; and through its necessities it has 
obtained freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and is now in process of 
attaining a third form of freedom equally necessary to its undertaking, 
namely, the freedom of teaching. This means that it itself shall control its 
own courses of study, its own methods and conditions of instruction, suffi- 
cient money for its business, and its own expenditure of funds set apart for 
purposes of education." (E. C. Moore, in How New York City administers 
its Schools, p. 78.) 

* See especially H. E. Bard, The City School District, pp. 74-76. 

^ Within recent years a tendency to segregate the health department 
also has been evident, as cities have been found incompetent and unwilling 
to deal properly with the health problem. A conspicuous example of this 
is the erection of a State Health Council in New York State, with power 
to supersede any local health ordinance by a general state regulation. 



COSTS, FUNDS, AND ACCOUNTING 413 

the desirability of removing the tax-determining power for 
the schools from the control of the city council, and of 
placing it, within certain legal limits to be jSxed by the 
legislature, with the school authorities for determination. 
If within the legal limits, the rate decided upon should not 
be subject to review by any city authority. The results 
have been uniformly good in those cities where such power 
has been transferred to the school authorities, and the 
schools of such cities have, in general, been able to make 
better progress ,than in those cities where the school depart- 
ment still remains a branch of the city government. The 
rates frequently are higher than under council control, as 
they usually should be, but they are not higher than the 
needs of the schools would indicate as desirable or the 
wealth of the people would indicate as reasonable. Of all 
money expended by any department of a municipality, that 
expended for schools is probably the most honestly and the 
most intelligently expended. 

The competition for city funds. In those cities and 
States where no such separation of the tax-determining 
power for schools has as yet been provided for by law, and 
the schools are regarded as a part of the municipal govern- 
ment, the school department must continue to compete with 
the other departments of the city government for funds. 
This demands that the school department be not only able 
to prove its needs, but also able to force the city governing 
authorities to recognize them. 

Once the city authorities tended to divide the city taxes 
between the school system and the other city needs, the 
other city-department needs — streets, sewers, health, fire, 
police, parks, library, and general expense — then being 
relatively small. Within recent years these other city needs 
have greatly increased in size and importance, due in part 
to the increasing costs for all kinds of service and material, 



414 



PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 



and in part to the more insistent public demands for good 
parks, streets, sewers, health and fire protection, etc. Each 
of these other departments is able to offer easily imderstood 
statements as to needs, unit-costs, savings effected, benefits 
extended, etc., to back up their requests for additional 
funds. 

The school department also asks yearly for more money, 
largely on the basis of good intentions and purposes, but 




Schenectady, N.Y. San Francisco, Cal. 

Fis. 34. SHOWING THE COMPETITION FOR CITY FUNDS 

In both cities the school board has nothing to do with the fixing of the tax-rate for 
schools, and in each the schools have been completely outdistanced in the race for funds 
by other city departments. Many other cities will show a similar situation. 

without being able clearly to prove its needs. When an at- 
tempt is made to do so it not infrequently is made in terms 
which the ordinary citizen can scarcely comprehend. In 
part, this condition is inevitable, by reason of the very nature 
of the school. Often, however, the school department pre- 
sents no budget worthy of a name,^ and no statement that 

^ This is well illustrated by the situation in San Francisco. 
"One very obvious reason why the schools have failed to receive needed 
appropriations is that the school authorities have not known how to ask 



COSTS, FUNDS, AND ACCOUNTING 415 

sLows that it knows anything as to the unit costs of its 
work, or the need for or the effectiveness of expenditures 
within the school department. It is really not surprising that 
city councils often emphasize other city departments and 
give the schools a decreasing percentage of the annual city 
taxes. ^ 

for money. They have not seen the relation between school needs which 
will come next year, and lump sum requests made this year for money, 
unsupported by statements of fact or proof of need. Lump sums with no 
details whatsoever are set down opposite all other items than teachers' 
salaries. . . . 

"No comparisons are made in the estimate of the board or the superin- 
tendent of last year's appropriation, or last year's expenditure, with the 
estimate of expenditures for next year. Nothing in the salary roll indicates 
how many new teachers are needed because of new enrollment, or new 
service to be rendered: $96,960 is asked for janitors in elementary schools, 
and that is all. Nobody can tell how many janitors this will provide, what 
salaries will be paid, or how many janitors were employed last year. Simi- 
larly no details whatsoever are given for supplies, nothing in regard to the 
amount on hand, or the expected consumption next year. Huge lump sums 
are asked for for the extensions of kindergartens, additions to school build- 
ings, yard improvements, etc., with absolutely no statement as to how the 
money asked for will be spent, what the needs are, or how much service 
will be bought with the money. 

"The figures may be entirely reasonable and adequate, but the chances 
are that with so little information, and with the ever-pressing necessity of 
cutting down all estimates, the appropriating body will suppose that the 
school estimate is 'swollen' and will 'chop' accordingly. 

"The yearly reports of the financial transactions of the Board of Edu- 
cation are also utterly inadequate. The financial secretary (business mana- 
ger) makes only a scanty list of disbursements. A thoroughly unscientific 
financial statement is made by the Superintendent's office and included in 
the annual report. The supplies director makes no report to the public." 
{School Survey Report on Some Conditions in the Schools of San Francisco, 
pp. 71, 73. Published by the Collegiate Alumnse of San Francisco, 19i«.> 

1 " Each claimant before city boards of estimate has a specific reform to 
promote, and presents definite figures to support his position. It is not the 
schools vs. graft, but the schools vs. street-cleaning, pure water, tenement- 
house inspection, the prevention of disease, or the reduction of infant 
mortality. The advocate of pure water or clean streets shows how much 
the death-rate will be altered by each proposed addition to his share of the 
budget. Only the teacher is without such figures. What can be expected 
of this but a curtailment of the school budget? Why, I ask, should New 



416 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

A better school budget. To change this condition our 
school departments must provide a good system of book- 
keeping and a more accurate means of accounting, with a 
view to being able to make their requests for funds more 
in terms of past usefulness, future needs, unit costs, and 
units of accomplishment. Unless our school authorities 
introduce more accurate methods in budget-making they 
can scarcely hope, in these days of rising prices and increas- 
ing pressure for city funds, to be able to obtain the appro- 
priations necessary to allow them to meet the constantly 
expanding needs of a modern city. Unless this situation is 
faced in a business-like manner our superintendents and 
school boards are likely to find the burden of proof as to 
proper use of funds and additional needs, even in cities 
where the school board controls the funds, harder and 
harder to meet each year. 

All estimates as to needs should be classified by depart- 
ments, and further subdivided under the main headings 
used in accounting. The estimates under each heading 
should also be made on the basis of the actual expenses of 
the preceding year, for each item; the quantity of each kind 
of service or supply needed the coming year; and the cost 
per unit of service or supply. The budget should also state 
how much is needed to meet continuing needs, how much 
for automatic increases, and how much to meet enlargements 
31 tne service of the schools. Any additional information 
which will enable an appropriating body to reach an intelli- 
gent conclusion with respect to the adequacy or excessive- 
ness of the amounts requested, such as comparative costs for 
a number of years, comparative costs in other comparable 

York City put its money into schools rather than into subways? Why 
should it not enlarge playgrounds and parks instead of increasing school 
facilities? Why should it support ineflBcient school teachers instead of 
efficient milk inspectors? " (S. N. Patten, in Educational Review, May, 1911, 
p. 468.) 



COSTS, FUNDS, AND ACCOUNTING 417 

cities, reasons for increased unit costs, etc., should be pre- 
sented in support of requests for increased funds. 

A detailed annual school budget should be prepared, and 
a detailed annual statement of expenses should also be made 
to the people of the city. On both of these the superintendent 
of schools should spend some time in the smaller city, and 
he should supervise their preparation even in the larger 
city. Even though prepared by heads of departments, as 
will be the case in large cities, the superintendent should be 
familiar with the larger details of the budget and the reasons 
for each important request. Upon his mastery of the finan- 
cial details of school administration depends much of his 
success in dealing with the people, and with the tax-levying 
body of the city, in all of those matters relating to the 
financial aspect of the educational problem. The better 
business man the superintendent is the easier will he be able 
to handle this phase of the administrative problem. 

Better accounting methods. Better budget methods in- 
variably demand better accounting methods, and better 
accounting methods naturally lead to the preparation of a 
better annual budget. Up to a very few years ago there were 
about as many different methods of school accounting as 
there were city school systems, but within recent years city 
school systems have quite generally adopted the form for 
reporting financial statistics prepared by the cooperation 
of the United States Bureau of Education, the United 
States Census Office, the Association of School Accounting 
Officers, and the Committee of the National Council of 
Education on Uniform Records and Reports. With uni- 
form financial reports a comparison of costs for different 
items, and for different parts of a school system, is now pos- 
sible for the first time. 

The uniform financial records now in use^ involve the 

^ Copies of the form used in reporting may be obtained from the U.S. 
Commissioner of Education, Washington, D.C. 



418 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

keeping of all school-system costs under the following 
headings : — 

/. Expenses of general control. (Classified for salaries and for 
other objects.) 

1. Board of education and secretary's office. 

2. School elections and school census. 

3. Operation and maintenance of general offices. 

4. Office of superintendent of schools. 

5. Enforcement of compulsory-education laws. 

6. Other expenses of general control. 

7. Total expenses of general control. 

//. Expenses of instruction. (Classified under day elementary 
and secondary schools, evening elementary and secon- 
dary schools, normal schools, schools for the industries, 
special schools, and special activities.) 

1. Salaries of supervisors of grades and subjects. 

2. Other expenses of supervisors. 

3. Salaries of principals and their clerks. 

4. Other expenses of principals. 

5. Salaries of teachers. 

6. Textbooks. 

7. Stationery and supplies used in instruction. 

8. Other expenses of instruction. 

9. Total expenses of instruction. 

III. Expenses of operation of the school plant. (Classified as under 

IL) 

1. Wages of janitors and other employees. 

2. Fuel. 

3. Water. 

4. Light and power. 

5. Janitors' supplies. 

6. Other expenses of operation of plant. 

7. Total expenses of operation of plant. 

IV. Expenses of maintenance of school plant. (Classified as under 

II.) 

1. Repair of buildings and upkeep of grounds. 

2. Repair and replacement of equipment. 

3. Insurance. 

4. Other expenses of maintenance of school plant. 

5. Total expenses of maintenance of school plant. 



COSTS, FUNDS, AND ACCOUNTING 419 

V. Expenses of auxiliary agencies. (Classified as under II.) 

1. Libraries. 

(a) Salaries. 

(6) Books. 

(c) Other expenses. 

2. Promotion of health. 

(a) Salaries. 

(b) Other expenses. 

3. Transportation of pupils, 

(a) Salaries. 

(b) Other expenses. 

4. Total expenses of auxiliary agencies. 

VI. Miscellaneous expenses. (Classified as under II.) 

1. Payments to private schools. 

2. Payments to schools of other civil divisions. 

3. Care of children in institutions. 

4. Pensions. 

5. Rent. 

6. Other miscellaneous expenses. 

7. Total miscellaneous expenses. 
VII, Outlays. (Classified as under 11.) 

1. Land. 

2. New buildings. 

3. Alteration of old buildings. 

4. Equipment of new buildings and grounds. 

5. Equipment of old buildings, exclusive of replacements. 

6. Total for outlays. 
VIII. Other payments. 

1. Redemption of bonds. 

2. Redemption of short-term loans. 

3. Payment of warrants and orders of preceding yeax. 

4. Payments to sinking funds. 

5. Payments of interest. 

6. Miscellaneous payments, including trust funds, text- 
books to be sold to pupils, etc. 

7. Total other payments. 

Income receipts are also carefully classified. 

School accounts and unit costs. With the above classi- 
fication of expenditures for a city school system it is pos- 
sible to tell the total and the per-capita costs for any item 



420 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTIIATION 

of school expenditure, and in any type of school — such as 
elementary, high, industrial, special — in the system, and 
separately for day and evening schools. By a further 
classification of expenditures so as to show costs for all 
items for each individual school in the school system, it is 
possible to compare costs within the system, and to detect 
wastes and to perfect economies.^ With such a system of 
bookkeeping it is possible, at any time, to determine the 
per-pupil cost of any form of instruction, the per-room 
cost for any form of service or supply, and the per-building 
cost for any item of maintenance or upkeep, and to check 
wastes wherever found. It is also possible to determine the 
most effective and the most economical units of organiza- 
tion and administration for the schools. Such a system of 
bookkeeping every city should install, and from such finan- 
cial records a clear accounting should be made to the com- 
munity each year in the annual school report. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. City A has increased in population only two per cent in a decade, and 
its school "expenses but five per cent. Would this seem to indicate an 
efficiently conducted school system? 

2. In two cities of practically the same size, C and M, the school expenses 
in C represent thirty-one cents out of each dollar of city expenses, 
and in M but nineteen and a half cents. What would this seem to in- 
dicate as to the efficiency of the two systems? 

3. If the scope of the school systems in the two cities given above is 
practically the same, how would you account for the difference in 
percentage of expenditures? 

4. In what way does the school-building problem complicate the ques- 
tion of school support more now than it used to do? 

1 For example, such figures might show that the cost for fuel in two 
similar buildings was 20 per cent more in one than in the other; that the 
cost for pupil supplies in elementary-school-buildings ran from 95 cents to 
$1.05 except in two, where the figures were 55 cents and $1.89 respectively; 
and that the yearly per-capita cost of instruction was $5.50 more in a four- 
room building than in a ten-room building. The unit costs for different 
types of instruction could be worked out from such data. 



COSTS, FUNDS, AND ACCOUNTING 421 

5. With all city departments increasing their demands, how can our 
cities meet the problem? Can or should the school take a subordinate 
place in the matter of needed appropriations? Why? 

6. Is it a good thing for a school system to have to prove its needs: 
(a) to the community? (6) to a city council? 

7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of (a) unified control of 
all funds? (b) separate control by the school board of the school 
fimds? 

8. What advantages do other city departments have over the school 
department in the matter of proving their needs? 

9. Why is the problem of funds getting more difficult, in most of our 
cities, for the school department? 

10. What can a superintendent do, in his work with the community, which 
will prepare the way for an acceptance of the school budget by the 
city council? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Assume that the city school system described under the heading "A 
cheap school system" (page 408) is located in a city of 20,000 popula- 
tion, and that the school's share of the city taxes is eighteen cents 
on each dollar. Assume now that a new management takes control, and 
in five years develops a good and an efficient school system. Esti- 
mate the increased cost, and the percentage of the city taxes now 
needed. 

2. Outline a plan by which the above increase in the school's share of 
the city taxes might be obtained, against the competition of the other 
city departments. 

3. Outline a good form of budget for a small school system. 

4. Look up and report on the methods used and the limitations imposed 
in levying the school tax in the cities mentioned in footnote 1, page 411. 

5. Do the same for such States as give control of school tax levies to all 
cities by general law. 

6. From what sources do the city schools of your State receive their 
revenue, what percentage comes from each source, and has the in- 
crease in revenues and the growth of the schools kept pace over a 
decade or a decade and a half? 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Bard, H. E. The City School District. 118 pp. Trs. Col. Contribs. to Educ, 

no. 28, New York, 1909. 

A very useful study. From page 65 on is devoted to revenue, tax levies, expen- 
ditures, and accounting. Good bibliography. 

Bobbitt, J. F. " High School Costs "; in School Review, vol. 23, pp. 505-34. 
(October, 1915.) 
A comparative study of costs in a number of high schools, illustrated by tables and 

drawings. 



422 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Butte, Montana. Report of a Survey of the School System. (1914.) 

Chapter XI, on " Costs and Financial Records," includes forms for use in a book- 
keeping plan, and points out the need of better records for the school system. 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. Administration of Public Education in the 
United States. 
Chapter XXIX, on financial statistics, is a good supplementary chapter. 
Hutchinson, J. H. School Costs and School Accounting. 148 pp. Trs. Col, 
Contribs. to Educ, New York, 1914. 
A valuable study of costs and accounting, with ledger forms for use. 
Monroe, Paul {editor). Cyclopedia of Education. See article, "Budget, 
School," in vol. i, pp. 461-64. 
A general statement of the problems involved. 
Moore, E. C. How New York City administers its Schools. 311 pp. World 
Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1913. 

Chapter V, on the "Relation of School Appropriations to Growth"; Chapter VI, 
on the "Need of freeing the Board of Education from the Control of the City in Mat- 
ters of Finance"; Chapter IX, on "Reporting on Costs"; and Chapter XI, on "How 
Estimates are prepared," are good on the conditions existing in a large city-governed 
school department. 

National Education Association Committee. Final Report of the Com- 
mittee on Uniform Records and Reports. 51 pp. Made as a report to 
the National Council, in 1912. Printed separately by the National 
Education Association. 

Contains standard forms for accounting. 

Portland, Oregon. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. (1913.) 
441 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1915. 

Chapter XVII, on " Costs of the System of Education," gives a comparative study 
of Portland with thirty-six other cities of its class, with reference to costs and the 
ability to maintain good schools. 

Rowe, L. S. "Educational Finances; the Financial Relation of the Depart- 
ment of Education to the City Government " ; in Annals of the Ameri- 
can Academy of Political Science, vol. xv, pp. 186-203. (March, 1900.) 
A study of the problem of city control. Thinks it ideal rather than practicable. 
Illustrates from figures from a number of cities. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Report of a Survey of the School System. 324 pp. 
1915. 

Chapter XIII, on the financial problem, establishes a standard for measuring the 
amoimt of money which ought to be spent on the schools of the city. 

Snedden, D., and Allen, W. H. School Reports and School Ejfflciency. 183 
pp. Macmillan Co., New York, 1908. 
A very useful volume on the collection, tabulation, and publication of school facts 



CHAPTER XXVI 

RECORDS AND REPORTS 

Good records a necessity. From all that has been said so 
far it will be evident that good and accurate records as to 
the work of a school system are an increasing necessity. 
The work of an efficiency bureau must be based on good 
records, and the ability to make accurate statements as to 
progress and needs and costs makes similar demands for 
facts. In many of our school systems records are now col- 
lected which are of little value, in their present form, except 
for purposes of complying with state requirements, while 
other records are collected which might be made of value 
if any one were to work them up and render them useful. 
In many cases, though, new records need to be devised and 
new information collected. This new information relates to 
teachers, to pupils as individuals and as groups, and to the 
material and cost side of instruction. The nature of the data 
desired has been indicated somewhat in the preceding chap- 
ters. The proper collection of such data naturally involves 
some labor, and still more work to tabulate it and make it 
ready for use. 

It is not desirable to put more report work on teachers, 
though all efficiency records will involve teachers' coopera- 
tion, nor is it desirable to give principals more office work 
upon which to spend their time and energy. On the contrary, 
anything that can be done to take principals away from of- 
fice work and put them into the work of helpful supervision 
is very desirable. Since more and better records and re- 
ports are desirable, however, and since such are necessary for 



424 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

eflficient community service, an office clerk should be pro- 
vided the principals in all school buildings of any size, to 
give out supplies, attend to the telephone, transact much 
of the business with casual callers, send notes as directed, 
check up records, fill out and transmit forms, and do the 
general routine office work of a school. The pressure then 
should be put upon the principals to get out of their offices 
and into the schoolrooms, and to extend helpful supervision 
to their teachers, instead of remaining in their offices and 
doing this clerical work. 

Pupil records. A number of forms of pupil records should 
be kept. One card relating to the school-attendance matters 
will be necessary, and this should contain such data as is 
indicated in Chapter XXI. Another will be what is known 
as a cumulative-record card, and should contain a brief digest 
of the pupil's age, grade, and progress record during his 
entire school course.^ These record cards are transmitted 
from school to school, as the pupil moves about. Another 
type of pupil records is now in process of being evolved to 
contain data as to the pupil's educational progress, as deter- 
mined by tests of various kinds which are made from time 
to time. 

The compilation of this pupil data into room, grade, 
school, and school-system data will require some clerical 
service, but there is every reason, drawn from the experi- 
ence of the business world and from the experience of the 
few cities which have collected and tabulated such informa- 
tion, to believe that the increased efficiency which will be 
made possible, and the increased knowledge as to means and 
ends and values which will result, will more than pay for 
the labor necessary to secure such data and make it of use. 

^ One form of such a card is given in the Preliminary Report of the Com- 
mittee on Uniform Records and Reports, in Proceedings of National Educa- 
tion Association, 1911, p. 272. 



RECORDS AND REPORTS 425 

School-system records. Our school authorities are not 
likely to know too much about what they are doing, or what 
the work attempted is costing. Such information should be 
tabulated and charted, and made as useful and intelligible 
as possible. Much of the material collected will be capable 
of graphic representation, and the presentation of facts in 
graphic form will always prove helpful and stimulating. 
The use of such graphic data in the form of charts, lantern 
slides, and cuts in printed matter, should prove of much 
use in educating the public. Few cities now have or use 
such worked-up data with regard to their schools, though 
many other city departments prepare and present such 
graphic evidence as to the effectiveness and usefulness of 
what they are doing. 

At public-welfare, pubHc-service, and other municipal ex- 
hibits, one usually finds much of this graphic work showing 
what is being done by city park boards, city health boards, 
water commissions, tenement-house commissioners, milk 
inspectors, hospital service, charity commissions, and play- 
ground commissions, but usually little or nothing is shown 
with reference to the work of the public schools. These 
departments, boards, and commissions have learned that 
the best appeal to the public is made through the eye, and 
the constantly increasing funds voted for these purposes 
lii our cities is evidence as to the effectiveness of such appeal. 
It is important that our school officials learn their methods 
and adopt the same practices. 

The annual school report. Practically the only means 
adopted by the schools in the past to inform and enlist the 
interest of the public has been the issuance of a printed 
school report. An examination of hundreds of printed school 
reports shows how painfully inadequate many of those issued 
are. Too often they are not reports at all, but rather a 
mechanical record of certain facts relating to the formal 



426 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

operation of the school system, and give no evidence of 
having been prepared for any other purpose. Sometimes 
they contain but a few pages of report proper, the great bulk 
being given over to printing a course of study, or the rules 
and regulations of the school board. Sometimes these re- 
ports are issued biennially instead of annually, sometimes 
only occasionally, and not infrequently not at all.^ In some 
of our States it seems to be the habit for the school authori- 
ties to publish little or nothing. 

Probably no greater mistake can be made by a superin- 
tendent of schools or by a school board than to omit en- 
tirely the publication of an annual report, covering the 
work, progress, and need of the schools, and with such 
charts and interpreted statistical information as may be 
necessary to prove their progress and performances and 
needs. No more effective means than an annual printed 
report ^ can be employed for informing the pubhc as to what 
is being done, or of stimulating a public interest in seeing 
that the needs of the schools are provided for. Such should 
serve as the chief means of communication between the 
superintendent and the board on the one hand and the pub- 
lic on the other. In dealing with the council, if the council 
is the tax-levying power, or with the public if the school 
board determines the school-tax rate, it can be made to 
form a most effective bulwark in support of continued 
requests for larger funds. 

A policy of rapid expansion and increased expenditure is 

^ The habit of publishing a report or not seems to run by states and 
sections. For the North- Atlantic group of States one can secure annual 
reports for practically all cities, while for Indiana cities it is difficult to 
secure any printed reports. An examination of the salaries paid Indiana 
city superintendents causes one to wonder if there is not a correlation be- 
tween the low salaries paid and the failure of the superintendents to tell 
their communities the nature and importance of their services. 

^ An annual printed report should be required of all city school systems. 
by general state law. 



RECORDS AND REPORTS 427 

almost certain to end in disaster for the superintendent 
who is too busy making progress to take time to tell the 
people what he is doing, and why.^ Sure and permanent 
progress is made only when the people understand what 
is being done, and the reasons for the increased cost. The 
people need to be stimulated by their school officials to a 
desire for progress, and inspired with confidence that those 
who represent them are trustworthy and efficient. Only 
upon such confidence and cooperation can the work of public 
education long proceed. 

Educational progress necessitates that our schools must 
often take a position in advance of the conceptions as to 
educational needs of the average intelligence of the com- 
munity in which the schools are located, and it is important 
that the school authorities keep the people close to the 
schools. This means an entirely different thing from keep- 
ing the schools close to the people. The former calls for 
leadership and constructive statesmanship; the latter is the 
cry of the time-server and the man of little competence. 

Effective presentation of information. A school report, if 
it is to be read and understood, must present its information 
in a simple, effective manner. The usual "collection of cold, 
conventional facts, loosely arranged and presented in a 
purely formal manner, and without any indication of their 
vital relationship to the efficiency or growth of the educa- 

^ Such an expansion of a school system as was made at Newton, Massa- 
chusetts, as shown in Figure 28, coupled with the marked increase in school 
attendance of those beyond the compulsory school ages and the attracting 
of children from private and parochial schools to the public school, as 
shown in Figure 29, was not accomplished without a marked increase 
in the per-capiia cost for schools. The schools of Newton being maintained 
wholly by local (town) taxation, the people were compelled to meet this 
increased cost by means of increased taxation. This they did, and rather 
willingly, only because the superintendent, in his annual printed reports, 
showed in detail where every additional dollar went, and the need for such 
materially-increased expenditures. 



428 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

tional system," ^ will not bring much cooperation or re- 
sponse. Neither will it be read. Reports to the people 
about their schools must deal with children and their edu- 
cation. In these the people will be interested. The financial 
accounts are usually fairly well presented, but on the side 
of the educational accounts our school reports are usually 
weak. If our people seem to be slow in responding to the 
increasing and enlarging needs of our schools, it is in part due 
to the failure of our school authorities to render a proper 
accounting to the people of their educational stewardship of 
the children. 

Upon the preparation of an annual school report a super- 
intendent may well spend a month or a month and a half of 
every school year. It is one of his most important duties 
as superintendent. In a way he should be thinking of what 
he desires to say to the people as he goes about his work 
during the year, the final intensive work being merely the 
organization of the material he wishes to present. It will 
pay well to take time and pains to prepare a good report, 
and the money which the board spends in printing it will 
be money well spent. 

Enlightening the public. The Committee of the National 
Education Association on Uniform Records and Reports, 
in its preliminary report to the Department of Superin- 
tendence in 1911, closed its report with the following im- 
portant statement with reference to school reporting: ^ 

Not only are carefully coUeeted and well-organized statistics 
vital to the judicious administration of the school, but such data 
serve as the most effective means of enlightening the public with 
reference to educational needs and conditions. The growing com- 
plexity of modern city life militates against parents having to any 
extent first-hand knowledge of the school. Indeed, the average 
citizen knows little of the purposes, range of activities, and 

^ Elliott, in Report of the Portland School Survey, chap. xvi. 

2 Proceedings of National Education Association, 1911, p. 302. 



RECORDS AND REPORTS 429 

methods of modern education. The necessity of systematic effort 
toward acquainting the jmblic with the problems and needs of the 
school is now felt on every hand. 

In such a campaign mere assertion, personal opinion, and per- 
sonal bias have little weight. The public only takes seriously those 
presentations of school needs and conditions which are based upon 
carefully-collected and well-interpreted facts. Only by the use of 
such data, set forth by means of tables, colored circles, curves, 
black-line graphs, or other graphic representations, can the people 
be made acquainted with the whole work of the school, be made 
to realize where the school breaks down, be brought to understand 
the necessity of certain adjustments within the school, be brought 
to appreciate the propriety of expending such large sums of public 
money upon education. Only by these means can the public be con" 
vinced that the modem school, despite its wide range of instruction 
and activities, is more effective than the school of the past, and is 
seeking ow never before to serve all the children and all the people of 
the community. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Dutton, S. T., and Snedden, D. Administration of Public Education in the 

United States. 2d ed. 

Chapter XXX, on school records and reports, is a good supplementary chapter. 
National Education Association Committee. Preliminary Report of the 
Committee on Uniform Records and Reports; in Proceedings of National 
Education Association, 1911, pp. 271-302. 

A good report on the need and means for enlightening the public on the work of the 
schools. 

National Education Association Committee. Final Report of the Com- 
mittee on Uniform Records and Reports. Made as a report to the Na- 
tional Council. 51 pp. Printed separately by the National Education 
Association. 

Covers state and city reporting, with many forms recommended for use. 

Portland, Oregon. Report of the Survey of the Public School System. (1913.) 

441 pp. Reprinted by World Book Co., Yonkers, New York, 1915. 

Chapter XVI is a discussion of the annual report issued, and the forms used by the 
school department. 

Snedden, D., and Allen, W. H. School Reports and School Efficiency. 183 
pp. Macmillan Co., New York, 1908. 
A very useful volume on the collection, tabulation, and use of school facts. 



PART III 
CITY ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE APPLIED 



CHAPTER XXVII 

CITY ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE SUMMARIZED 

As was stated in Chapter VI to be our purpose, we have 
now considered, at some length, the principles underlying 
the proper organization and administration of school sys^ 
terns in our city school districts. The administrative experi- 
ence of the city school districts has been given, somewhat in 
detail, and the best principles of action which have been 
evolved during the past half -century of conflict and progress 
have been set forth. We have devoted so much of our space 
to the problems of the city because the best that we have 
in administrative experience has taken place there, and it 
is from this city administrative experience that the great 
lessons as to the proper organization and administration 
of public education are to be drawn. In forms of organiza- 
tion, administration, supervision, equipment, and in the ex- 
tension of educational advantages, it has been the city school 
district which has been the pioneer. Let us now briefly sum- 
marize this administrative experience, and then proceed to 
apply the best results of it to the problems of organization 
and administration of public education in our counties and in 
the State. 

The city an educational unit. Perhaps the most distinctive 
feature of city school-district organization and adminis- 
tration is the unity of the work. Instead of being split up, 
as our counties are, into hundreds of little school districts, 
with separate boards of control and finance for each little 
school-building, and with no unity of effort or purpose, the 
schools of a city school district, however large this city 
school district may be, are managed as a unit, and with 



434 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

all the educational and financial advantages that come 
from unit control. One small central board and one admin- 
istrative organization controls all the schools of a city dis- 
trict, even though that city district may contain a school 
population as large as is found in some of our States, and 
may even expend a greater sum for educational purposes. 
Early in their administrative history, as was pointed out 
in Chapter VI, our cities abolished their district organiza- 
tions, consolidated their schools under one board of control, 
and unified both the educational and the financial manage- 
ment of their schools. Much of the strength of our city 
school organizations to-day has come as a result of this 
wise early action; without this unification any substantial 
progress would have been impossible.^ 

Everywhere to-day one finds this unified control, worked 
out of course more perfectly in some cities than in others, 
and with a resulting unity in management, finance, and 
educational purpose which is of much importance in the 
administration of public education. A small board, com- 
posed of representative citizens, oversees the administration 
of the entire school system, though this school system is often 
much larger and costs much more to maintain than is true 
for the hundreds of little town and rural school systems, 
taken together, of the county in which the city is located. 

Not only are these city school boards small, but, as we 
have shown, there has been a marked tendency, within 
recent decades, to reduce their size still further, to change 

* Had Chicago, for example, continued to follow the district system of 
organization for its schools, which it did up to 1853, when the different 
district schools of the city were consolidated into one city system and a 
superintendent of schools was first employed, there would be to-day hun- 
dreds of school boards in the city trj'ing to do what one school board does 
now, 'wdth all of the attendant crossing of purposes, lack of unity of ef- 
fort, and waste of funds. That the schools of Chicago would have made 
the progress they have made under unified control cannot be seriously 
believed by any one. 



CITY EXPERIENCE SUMMARIZED 435 

their basis of election from wards to that of the city schoo/ 
district as a whole, to reduce the number of board commit- 
tees or to abolish them entirely, to change these boards from 
executive into legislative bodies, and to transfer all execu- 
tive functions to carefully selected and well-paid executive 
officers. 

Administrative organization. In a rapidly increasing 
number of our cities the best principles of corporation con- 
trol have been worked out and are being put into practice in 
the educational organization. In such the board of educa- 
tion for the city acts much as the board of directors for a 
business corporation, listening to reports as to the progress 
of the business, approving proposals as to extensions or 
changes in the nature of the business, deciding lines of 
policy to be followed, approving the budget for annual 
maintenance, and serving as a means of communication 
between the stockholders and the executive officers. 

The executive officers are employed to discharge execu- 
tive functions, and to these executive officers are given power 
and authority commensurate with the responsibilities of 
the positions they hold. The board of education hears re- 
ports, examines proposals, and legislates, while the executive 
officers execute the decrees of the board and supervise the 
details of the work of their administrative departments. 
Each executive officer, in any good city school organization, 
has been selected because of supposed competency to manage 
the work of his department, and without reference to such 
extraneous considerations as politics, residence, or local 
popularity; each is sustained in the administration of his 
department, so long as he shows grasp and competency and 
renders efficient service; and each is given control of the de- 
tails of administration within his department, and is ex- 
pected to know how to handle such as an expert in his 
special field. The superintendent of schools, as the unifying 



436 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

head of all departments and the chief person responsible to 
the board, oversees in a way the work of all other executive 
officers, and unifies the work of all about the central purpose 
for which the schools exist. 

Diversity as a result of unity. Largely as a result of the 
unity in organization, administration, and finance, one 
finds in our city school districts a diversity in the educa- 
tional facilities provided such as could not possibly be ar- 
ranged for under any other than a centralized form of 
educational and financial management. Only as a result of 
a unification in organization and administration, on a rather 
large scale, can such specializations in school work be pro- 
vided. All of the schools being under one board of education 
and one administrative and supervisory organization, it is 
possible to concentrate effort and to specialize production, 
by reason of this large-scale organization, to a degree that 
would be impossible under small units of organization and 
administration. In the matter of the scope of the instruction 
provided, types and classes of schools, differentiations in 
the courses within the same school and in different schools, 
specializations in the work to meet varying individual needs, 
and in the degree of community service which is being ren- 
dered, our city school districts stand as excellent examples 
of the higher efficiency and larger service which result from 
a unification of educational effort on a rather large scale, 
and the selection of experts to handle the expert func- 
tions. Only under some form of large-scale educational 
organization can many of the important supplemental 
educational advantages, such as proper grading and pro- 
motion, special instruction and supervision, special-type 
schools, and health supervision, be provided for at all. 

Teaching and supervisory organization. In teachers and 
supervisory officers, too, the city school districts, due largely 
to the many educational advantages provided as a result 



CITY EXPERIENCE SUMMARIZED 437 

of their large-scale organization and administration, have 
for long held a decided advantage over the towns and rural 
districts surrounding them. Not only have the city school 
districts paid better salaries, but they have also — largely 
as a result of their graded and specialized instruction, profes- 
sional supervision, differentiated school work, larger oppor- 
tunities for growth and promotion, better living conditions, 
and better tenure — been able to attract the better teachers 
of the State to their service. The normal schools of the 
State, too, have for long specialized on preparing their 
graduates for service in the graded work of the cities, and 
the colleges and universities have prepared teachers for the 
secondary schools which the cities have until recently pro- 
vided almost alone. Grade meetings, local institutes, and 
professional reading have added to the opportunities for 
teachers to improve whUe in the service, and have increased 
the attractions which have made good teachers everywhere 
anxious to get into the city districts. So great has been the 
desire of teachers to get into the schools of the cities that 
city school authorities have been able to select, and often 
quite carefully, from among the great rush of those desiring 
city employment. The unified organization and adminis- 
tration of the schools of a large unit has been the chief rea- 
son why the city school districts have been able to extend 
these attractions to teachers and to supervisory ojQficers. 

As a result of this large-scale organization and administra- 
tion, the cities have been able to provide carefully graded 
instruction, to select teachers for positions and to adjust 
them to the work to be done, to provide a supervising 
principal for every small group, to employ special teachers 
and supervisors for many of the subjects of instruction, and 
to institute educational leadership often of a high order. 

Business organization and finance. In business organiza- 
tion and in matters of finance, our city school districts have 



438 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

for long enjoyed exceptional advantages. These, too, have 
been in large part due to their unified organization and 
administration. Under any district or ward form of organi- 
zation, some districts or wards would be unable to provide 
in any satisfactory manner for the education of their children. 
With the whole city and often extensions beyond the city 
as a school-district unit, for which educational facilities are 
provided and upon which taxes are laid by one adminis- 
trative board, without reference to any other consideration 
than the needs and wealth of the city district as a unit, a 
pooling of costs is made possible which results in the pro- 
vision of uniform educational advantages for all, and with- 
out undue expense to any portion of the whole. A few mills 
of tax, levied equally on all the property of the school district, 
provides good educational advantages and specialized in- 
struction for all of the children of the large city unit, regard- 
less of the wealth or lack of it in any portion of the city. 

In buying supplies and in the erection and maintenance 
of the school plant, further economies, both in cost price 
and in the utilization of material and buildings, are pos- 
sible as a result of the large unit for educational organization 
and administration. If actual economies in unit costs are 
not effected, then a better type of supply or building, or more 
abundant materials for instruction, are provided for the 
same money. In concentrating business and clerical matters 
for a large number of schools in one place, marked econo- 
mies in large-scale purchases may be made, clerical matters 
can be attended to better, and a better reporting as to costs 
is possible. 

Initiative and educational progress. Perhaps, after all, 
one of the greatest advantages which the large city school 
districts have enjoyed has been in the high quality of train- 
ing, leadership, and initiative which the city districts have 
been able to bring into their service. Men who would not 



CITY EXPERIENCE SUMMARIZED 439 

allow their names to be considered for political candidacy 
for a county superintendency have been quite willing to 
enter the city service as a teacher or a principal, and men 
to whom candidacy for the office of state superintendent 
of public instruction would offer no attraction have been 
willing to enter the service of the city as a superintendent. 
The result has been that for two generations the cities have 
maintained almost a monopoly of the real leaders in educa- 
tional administration in this country, with all the advan- 
tages that accrue to communities from intelligent leader- 
ship. It is not so much the character and training of the 
teaching force that tells, though these are important ad- 
juncts, as it is the quality of leadership at the top. About 
a superintendent of schools, as has been said before, the 
schools in a way revolve. What he is by training, insight, 
initiative, character, and executive skill, the schools usu- 
ally in time become; what he is not the schools usually 
plainly show. 

Any form of educational organization that expects to 
be strong and to produce good results must keep the way 
clear for those of merit and capacity to rise to the top, and 
must place a premium on executive capacity and leadership. 
The heavy toll paid to-day by our county and state school 
systems, where a political rather than an educational basis 
for the selection of leaders prevails, and where a prohibitive 
protective tariff in the form of a local residence requirement 
is levied against brains and competency from outside, is as 
yet only partially appreciated by our people. The unmistak- 
able administrative experience of our city school systems is 
that competency and politics seldom go hand in hand. An 
important element in the strength of our city school districts 
has been their freedom to go anywhere and to offer any 
reasonable inducements to draw the type of man or woman 
desired for some form of special or executive work. 



440 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

Clear and unmistakable lessons. The clear and unmis- 
takable lessons to be drawn from a study of om- city school- 
district administrative experience may be summarized very 
briefly as follows : — 

Large units for educational organization, and under small 
responsible legislative boards for school control; executive 
officers, carefully selected, retained on the basis of compe- 
tency and executive skill, and clothed with power commen- 
surate with their responsibilities; the provision of a special- 
ized type of instruction, only possible under large units of 
organization and administration, with many differentia- 
tions to meet individual and community needs; carefully 
selected and placed teachers, under good educational super- 
vision, and organized as a part of a large professional or- 
ganization; business and clerical organization for large 
units, centralized under responsible administrative officers, 
with the elimination of the unintelligent service and waste 
that comes from small-unit business transactions; large 
and specialized school-buildings, well adapted to modern 
educational needs, and under competent care and super- 
vision; the pooling of both the burdens and the advantages 
of education on a large scale, and with no excessive burdens 
or meager educational advantages for any part of the city 
school district; and, finally, by selecting its experts on a 
professional rather than a political basis, and with freedom 
to bargain anywhere for brains and competency, the pro- 
vision for that leadership and directive insight at the top 
without which no school system can expect to prosper and 
develop along strong lines. 

Having briefly summarized the lessons to be drawn from 
city -district administrative experience, let us now see in how 
far such principles may be applied to county and state 
educational organization. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

APPLICATION TO COUNTY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 

City and county administration contrasted. When we 
pass from a study of the best principles of educational or- 
ganization and administration, as represented by our city 
school-district development, to the conditions existing in 
the counties of most of our States, the contrast is marked in 
all that relates to eflficient educational organization and 
administration. In over one half of our States (see map, 
page 51) the form of organization and administration in 
use is based on the school district as the administrative 
unit, and in a number of other states the township or some 
form of district grouping is in use. Instead of a county 
school system, analogous to a city school system in edu- 
cational organization and administrative effectiveness, and 
which by analogy with all other forms of county public 
business we might expect to be the natural form, we find 
instead an unnecessarily large number of unnecessarily 
small administrative units, ^ each under the administrative 
control of a local board of district trustees, and but loosely 
bound together in a county educational organization. In 
many of our States these district boards of trustees possess 
so much power, and the county superintendent such small 
power, that the county oversight exists largely in name. 
Often, too, these local boards of trustees carry on their 
work with so little unity of purpose and so little conception of 

^ By a proper reorganization the schools of almost any rural county 
which is at all well settled could be taught better, by such a reorganization 
as is here proposed, and with a saving of from twenty to thirty-five per 
cent of the present number of teachers. 



442 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the meaning of elBficient educational service that the schools 
are inefficient, limited in scope and outlook, poorly adapted 
to modern educational needs, poorly taught and still more 
poorly supervised, and far more costly than there is any 
reason for their being. 

District trustee control. Instead of the rural and vil- 
lage schools of a county being an educational unit, as is the 
case in the cities, the schools in the counties, with a few 
exceptions, represent a decentralization in educational ad- 
ministration which must inevitably result in an inefficient 
type of educational and community service. Instead of 
one board of education working at the problem, and pro- 
ducing a imified educational organization and educational 
administration for the whole county, we find from ten to 
twenty different boards in the township-system States, and 
from thirty to two hundred different boards in the district- 
system States, each working at the problem in its own way. 
Between these different boards there is unity of purpose only 
in so far as it is imposed by the general school laws of the 
State, and by a very limited type of oversight which the 
county superintendent of schools is permitted to exercise. 

Each board works at the problem in about the same lim- 
ited way, and each produces about the same limited and 
unsatisfactory educational result. The schools lack in num- 
bers, interest, and enthusiasm. The teachers are often inexpe- 
rienced and poorly trained, and the conditions surrounding 
living in the districts and work in the district schools are 
not such as to retain for long the services of capable teach- 
ers. The supervision, in so far as it comes from the county, 
is clerical and statistical rather than personal and helpful; 
and in so far as it comes from the trustees is unintelligent 
to a high degree. The schools are so small and so expensive, 
and the number of children tributary to each is so small, 
that no specialization of work is possible within the school. 



APPLICATION TO COUNTY CONTROL 443 

High-school advantages are often entirely lacking, while 
cooperation for any other form of educational effort, such 
as district supervision, special teachers and instruction, 
health supervision, or an agricultural high school, is so dif- 
ficult of attainment as to be practically impossible. Even 
the consolidation of districts to form larger consolidated 
graded schools, concerning the educational advantages of 
which so much has been written within the past quarter of 
a century, has been found to be almost impossible of attain- 
ment in the district-system States, — due largely to the 
conservation and inertia of these boards of district school 
trustees and the rural people whom they represent. 

Financially the districts represent entirely too small a 
taxing area, and the cost for good rural schools is in conse- 
quence high. If any large dependence for support is made 
upon district taxation, the money provided for annual main- 
tenance is usually so limited that only a poor and inadequate 
rural school, taught by a cheap teacher and offering a type 
of education but little suited to rural needs, can be main- 
tained. The type of school-building erected and maintained 
by these district trustees is too often only a miserable make- 
shift, being cheap in construction, with poor lighting ar- 
rangements, no place for special types of work, and almost 
no sanitary arrangements. The teaching supplies provided 
are often inadequate, and under the system of district pur- 
chasing are far more expensive than they should be. The 
many educational and financial advantages which the 
cities enjoy, due to their ability to shift books and teach- 
ing equipment from room to room and building to building, 
are entirely lost to our rural schools under the district sys- 
tem of organization. 

Need for a fundamental reorganization. The district 
system of organization and administration, and to a certain 
degree the township system as well, is no longer adapted 



444 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

to meeting the educational needs of the present and the 
future. The advantages and disadvantages of both were 
described more at length in Chapter V, and the absolute 
inadequacy of the district system in particular, and to a 
certain extent the township system also, to provide a type 
of education for rural and village communities suited to 
modern educational needs was there pointed out. As a sys- 
tem of school organization the district unit has done its 
work, and it should be abandoned in favor of a unit more 
in harmony with modern business methods and one better 
calculated to serve the educational needs of rural people. 
Nothing short of a fundamental reorganization and redirec- 
tion of rural and village education, and along lines dictated 
by the best of city administrative experience, can transform 
these schools into the type of educational and social institu- 
tions demanded by our present-day rural life needs. 

This, however, can only be accomplished by the appli- 
cation to the problem of a larger type of administrative 
organization and experience than that represented by dis- 
trict or township control. Rm-al and village education 
needs to be unified as to organization and administration, 
expanded in scope, and redirected and differentiated as to 
purpose, and this can only be accomplished by organizing 
with larger administrative units, and by placing our rural 
and village schools under some authority of larger grasp and 
insight than the district school trustee. The township unit 
is an improvement over the district unit for organization and 
maintenance, but for many purposes it is poorly adapted to 
community or administrative needs. A much better unit 
is the county, which is used for almost all other forms of 
public business, and for which a more or less rudimentary 
form of educational organization already exists everywhere 
outside of Nevada and the six New England States. In 
these seven States, and possibly in two or three others, the 



APPLICATION TO COUNTY CONTKOL 445 

State seems to be the probable future unit for all large 
administrative control. Elsewhere the county forms a 
natural administrative unit. 

Rudimentary county-unit organizations. When we turn 
from the district or the township to the county, we find that 
the beginnings of a county unit for organization and ad- 
ministration have been made in most of our States by the 
creation of the office of county superintendent of schools, 
and in some States a county board of education of some type 
has also been provided for. The evolution of such an offi- 
cer and such boards was traced in Chapter IV, and some of 
the new demands upon them were there stated. These offi- 
cers and boards represent the beginnings of county-unit or- 
ganization and administration, but in most of our States, 
viewed from the standpoint of a good county-unit type of 
administrative control, they exist as yet as undeveloped and 
somewhat rudimentary offices and boards. The trouble 
lies in the fact that the county office so far has been politi- 
cal rather than educational in character, and that these 
county boards have not as yet become real governing edu- 
cational bodies. Perhaps the most serious difficulty is to be 
found in the conditions which at present surround the 
county educational office. 

The county superintendency. In twenty-nine of the 
forty-one States having a county educational officer he is 
elected by the people of the county, at popular elections. 
In eighteen of the twenty-nine States he is elected for but 
two-year terms, and in two of the eighteen he is by the law 
or the constitution made ineligible for more than four years 
in the office. In other words, the coimty superintendent 
of schools, a person who by all analogy with city school- 
district administrative experience ought to enter the work 
as a life career, and with the idea of becoming a leader in his 
profession, is by the people of our counties still regarded 



446 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

merely as a political oflBcer and clerk, and the old political 
principle of rotation in office is applied to the position. 

Instead of each county selecting this officer in the mar- 
kets of the whole nation, so as to secure trained and experi- 
enced men for the work, the market is limited to each county, 
and the prospective superintendent must instead hunt the 
office by means of a political campaign. He must first become 
a resident of the county and a voter, must then slowly 
work up in the party ranks and make acquaintances, in order 
to get in line for the nomination, and then, if finally suc- 
cessful, must stump the county against an opponent, paying 
his political assessments and campaign expenses, — always 
with the risk of defeat, and all for the sake of a temporary 
political job. In states where the primary has been intro- 
duced he must usually win two elections instead of one, 
and every alternate year must waste about six months of 
his time and possible educational efficiency. 

Why trained men go to the cities. It is not surprismg that 
the office of county superintendent does not attract the best 
men in the teaching profession, and that but little prog- 
ress in county educational organization and administration 
along sound lines has so far been made. Good men can sell 
their services in a better market. The low salaries paid, 
the expense of securing the office, the public notoriety, the 
humiliation of defeat, the short tenure of office, the high 
protective tariff levied against brains and competency from 
the outside by the local residence requirement, and the in- 
ability to accomplish much in states where the superintend- 
ent has the district system to deal with, all tend to keep the 
best men out of the office. The position of county superin- 
tendent of schools is one of much potential importance, but 
not until our counties do as our cities long ago did, and stop 
electing their superintendents by popular vote, can the 
office be made much more than a political job offering but 



APPLICATION TO COUNTY CONTROL 447 

temporary employment to the few who are willing to con- 
sider political candidacy. 

The clear and unmistakable lesson of our city school dis- 
tricts in the matter of employing school superintendents, 
and of all professional work and business enterprise in the 
matter of securing experts for any type of skilled work, is 
that thoroughly competent men are seldom secured by the 
political method. Before our communities can hope to have 
schools which for country and village children are as good as 
the cities provide for their children, they must provide some 
better plan for securing leaders for their educational service. 
Once take the office of county superintendent of schools out 
of politics, making it appointive instead of elective; once 
open it up to the competition of the whole country, as high- 
school principalships and city superintendencies have been; 
and once base salary, tenure, and promotion on training, 
competency, and efficient service; and the office of county 
superintendent of schools will offer a career and an oppor- 
tunity for constructive rural service for which a man or 
woman would be warranted in making long and careful 
preparation. 

The way out. To provide properly for the administration 
of rural and village education and to furnish the kind of 
instruction and supervision children in such schools ought 
to enjoy, demands that the lessons learned from a study 
of city school-district administrative experience be applied 
to the organization and administration of rural and village 
education. This demands the subordination of the district 
system, and probably, in part, the township system also; 
the erection of the county as the unit for school organization 
and administration, cities under city superintendents of 
schools being exempted from the county organization; ^ 

^ Another plan, tried in a few places, is to have the city board and 
superintendent include all of the county schools as a part of the city 



448 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

and the complete elimination of party politics from the 
management of the schools. Long ago our cities abolished 
their districts, began to manage their schools as a unit, and 
did away with the plan of selecting a superintendent from 
among the body of the electorate, and not until our counties 
introduce some such unit system into their educational or- 
ganization can there be a proper and economical coordina- 
tion in rural and village educational effort. For the pleasure 
of electing a horde of unnecessary trustees ^ and voting for 
another county officer, the people have, as a consequence, 
an unnecessary number of small, costly, and inefficient rural 
schools, poorer teachers than is necessary, inadequate and 
often unsuitable instruction, and supervision that is usually 
little more than a name. 

If our rural and village schools are to contribute any- 
thing worth while to the solution of our pressing rural-life 
problem and to render any really worthy community ser- 
vice, rural school administration and supervision must be 
put on as high a professional plane as is city school admin- 
istration and supervision. This demands a form of educa- 
tional organization somewhat analogous to that developed 
as a result of fifty years of work on the problem of city 
school organization. That will be one small central county 
board of education, composed of laymen, to replace the 
many district boards; the reorganization of the small, 
scattered, costly, and inefficient rural schools into a much 
smaller number of efficient, graded, and centrally located 
community-center schools, with high schools attached or 

organization. Where the county is small this plan might work fairly sat- 
isfactorily, though where the city problems are large and important the 
tendency probably would be to neglect the rural problems. 

1 In some of the States of the upper Mississippi Valley, using the district 
system, from 30,000 to 45,000 district school trustees are elected by the 
people to control the schools employing but one third that number of teach- 
ers, and spending less for annual maintenance than is spent in a city such 
as Boston, which has a board of education of five. 



state Edu( 



People of City School District 



City Board of Education 



CITY SUPERINTENDENT 
OF SCHOOLS 



City Administrative 
Departments and Officers 



Principals and 
Teachers 



Pupils 




Repair Man 



Parents 



Fig. 35. COUNTY-UNIT 



Authorities 



pie of County School District 



County Board of Education 




COUNTY SIJPEEIXTEXDENT 
OF SCHOOLS 





Assistant Superintendents 

and 

Special Supervisors 



Principals 



Teachers 



Pupils 



County Librarian 




ONAL ORGANIZATION 



APPLICATION TO COUNTY CONTROL 449 

accessible for all, and with instruction better suited to the 
needs of rural children; and the institution of a form of 
professional supervision that is as close and as effective as 
that which our city schools to-day enjoy. Such a plan in- 
volves a somewhat simple administrative reorganization 
in each county, and for such we have not only the example 
of our cities, but also excellent examples in the county-unit 
school systems of such states as Maryland, Florida, Geor- 
gia, Louisiana, and Utah.^ 

Details of a county-unit plan. Good principles of edu- 
cational organization and administration would indicate 
approximately the following as a desirable form for county 
educational reorganization : — 

I. General control. 

1. The consolidation, for purposes of administration, of all 
schools in a county, outside of cities having city superin- 
tendents of schools, into one county school district. 

2. The election of a county board of education of five rep- 
resentative citizens, from the county at large and for 
five-year terms, the first board however to so classify 
themselves that the term of one shall expire each year 
thereafter. This board to occupy for the schools of the 
county approximately the same position as a city board 
of education does for a city. 

3. Each county board of education to seek out and elect a 
well-trained professional expert to act as a county super- 
intendent of schools, and to fix his salary. Such officer to 
enjoy approximately the same tenure, rights, and privi- 
leges as a city superintendent of schools, and to have 

* In Chapter X of the author's Rural Life and Education, drawings show- 
ing a number of counties before and after reorganization are given ; while 
in Appendix D of the author's State and County Educational Reorganization, 
a county containing a city, five towns, and one hundred and three rural 
districts is shown in one drawing, and in another as reorganized into one 
city school district and one county-unit school district, the latter subdi- 
vided into fourteen attendance sub-districts, with a graded consolidated 
school and a partial or complete high school attached in each. Full sta- 
tistics as to teachers, costs, and tax rates for this county are also given. 



450 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

somewhat analogous administrative and supervisory duties 
and responsibilities. 

4. Each county board of education to hold title to all school 
property, outside of separately organized city school dis- 
tricts, with power to purchase, sell, build, repair, and in- 
sure school property. 

5. Each county board of education to act also as the board 
of control for any county high schools, county vocational 
schools, county agricultural high schools, and the county 
library, and to have power to order established such types 
of special schools as may seem necessary or desirable. 

6. Each county board of education to be directed to order a 
careful educational and social survey of its county, and 
upon the basis of such to proceed to reorganize the school 
system of the county by abolishing all unnecessary small 
schools, substituting therefore a few centrally located and 
graded consolidated schools, with partial or complete high 
schools attached, and to transport children to and from 
these central schools. Each such school and its tributary 
territory to be known as an attendance subdistrict, the 
bounds of which may be changed from time to time as in 
the case of city attendance lines. 

7. Each county board of education to have power to appoint, 
either alone or in cooperation with a city school district, or 
some adjoining county school district, a school health 
officer, a school attendance officer, and such other special 
officers or supervisors as the educational needs of the county 
school district may seem to require, and to establish or 
join in the establishment of special-type schools. 

II, Educational control. 

1. Each county school district to be managed as an educa- 
tional and financial unit by the county board of education 
and its executive officers. Cities contained within the 
county, which maintain a full elementary and secondary 
school system, employing a certain number of teachers 
(for example, twenty-five) and a city superintendent of 
schools, may ask for and obtain a separate educational 
organization, except that all general school laws of the 
State shall apply, and that the county school tax shall be 
levied uniformly on all property within the county. 

2. On the recommendation of the county superintendent of 



APPLICATION TO COUNTY CONTROL 451 

schools, each county board of education is to appoint all 
principals and teachers for the different schools of the 
county, outside of the separately organized city school 
districts, and to fix and order paid their salaries. 

3. On the recommendation of the county superintendent of 
schools, each county board of education is to approve the 
courses of study and textbooks to be used in the schools, 
the unit for the adoption of each being the unit of super- 
vision. 

4. Each county board of education to approve the employ- 
ment of special teachers and supervisors for the schools, 
and, on recommendation of the county superintendent of 
schools, to appoint them, and to fix and order paid their 
salaries. 

5. Each county board of education to have charge of the 
county library, and all of its branches, to appoint a county 
librarian and assistant librarians, and to provide for the 
care and development of the library and the circulation 
of books. The school libraries would become a part of the 
county library, and a branch library would be provided 
for in connection with most of the consolidated schools. 

III. Business and Clerical Control. 

1. Each county board of education shall appoint a secretary 
and business manager, who shall act as secretary for the 
board and shall have charge of the clerical, statistical, and 
financial work connected with the administration of the 
schools of the county school district. He is to approve all 
warrants drawn on the funds of the county, and to prepare 
the financial and statistical portions of the required annual 
school report. 

2. The secretary of the county board of education to have 
general charge of all purchases of supplies for the schools 
and the distribution of the same, and to have general 
oversight of all janitor service and repair work, except as 
otherwise provided for by the county board of education. 

3. For each consolidated school or small school retainec' 
(attendance subdistrict) the county board of education to 
appoint one local school director, to act as agent of the 
county board in the attendance subdistrict, and with 
power to make repairs as directed, see that the necessary 
supplies are provided, assist the principal or teachers in 



452 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

the maintenance of discipline, and act as a means of com- 
munication between the people whose children attend the 
school and the county board of education and its execu- 
tive officers. 

4. The secretary of each county board of education to be the 
custodian of all legal papers belonging to the county school 
district; to approve all bills and, when such have been 
ordered paid, to draw warrants for the same; to give all 
required notices; administer oaths; sign contracts as di- 
rected by the board; register all teachers' certificates; 
distribute blank forms and collect and tabulate the sta- 
tistical returns; keep a complete set of books covering all 
financial transactions and all funds ; and perform such other 
clerical and statistical functions as he may be directed to do. 

5. Each county board of education to approve an annual 
budget of expenses for the schools of the county, both for 
school maintenance and for buildings and repairs, and may 
order levied, within certain legal limits, a county school 
district tax to supplement the funds received from the 
state school tax and the county school tax, the latter to be 
levied on all property in the county and divided between 
the city school district and the county school district on 
some equitable apportionment basis. ^ 

6. Each county treasurer to act as treasurer for all city or 
county school districts in his county, and to pay out all 
funds on the orders of the proper city or county school 
district authorities, when approved by the secretary of the 
county board of education. 

IV. Powers and duties of the superintendent. 

In addition to those previously enumerated, the county 
superintendent of schools is: 
1. To act as the executive officer of the county board of 
education, and to execute, either in person or through 
subordinates, all educational policies decided upon by it. 

^ This greatly simplifies and equalizes taxation. Under such a plan there 
would be a state tax (or appropriation) for education, a general county 
school tax levied on all property in the county, and then such city-district 
or county-district taxes as may be needed to supplement the amounts re- 
ceived from state and county funds. The inequaUties of the present small 
district taxation would be abolished, and a pooling of effort on a large scale 
substituted instead. 



APPLICATION TO COUNTY CONTROL 453 

2. To act as the chief educational officer in the county, and 
as the representative of the state educational authorities. 
To this end he shall see that the school laws of the State 
and the rules and regulations of the state board of educa- 
tion are carried out. 

3. To have supervisory control of all schools and libraries 
under the county board of education, and general super- 
visory control of all officers in its employ (see Figure 35), 
with power to outline, direct, and coordinate their work, 
and, for cause, to recommend their dismissal. 

4. To nominate for election, and when elected to assign, 
transfer, and suspend all teachers and principals, and, for 
cause, recommend the promotion or dismissal of such. 

5. To visit the schools of the county, to advise and assist 
teachers and principals, to hold teachers' meetings and 
institutes, to direct the reading circle work in his county, 
and to labor in every practicable way to improve educa- 
tional conditions within his county. 

6. To act as the agent for the state department of education 
in the examining and certificating of teachers, and to de- 
cide, upon appeal to him, all disputes arising within the 
county as to the interpretation of the school law or the 
powers and duties of school officers. 

7. To oversee the preparation of the courses of study and to 
approve the same, to study the educational work done in 
the schools, and to approve for purchase all text and sup- 
plemental books and all apparatus and supplies. 

8. To recommend changes in the distribution or the organiza- 
tion of the schools, to recommend the establishment (/ 
new schools or branch libraries, and to assist in the corre- 
lation of the work of the schools with that of the libraries, 
agricultural activities, and other forms of educational 
service. 

9. To prepare and issue an annual printed report showing the 
work, progress, and needs of the schools of the county. 

Such a reorganization not easy. To inaugurate such a 
reorganization will require that the methods of three gen- 
erations and the selfish interests of individuals and com- 
munities will need to be overcome. Such a fundamental 
reorganization, too, cannot be expected to come through the 



454 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

voluntary cooperation of district authorities, upon which we 
have so far placed our chief hope. District authorities are 
too short-sighted, and know too little as to fundamental rural 
or educational needs. Neither can we expect much assist- 
ance from the average politically-elected county superin- 
tendent. The system of which he is a product too often to 
him seems a sacred system, and, in the district-system States, 
he is too afraid of the enemies he may make in the districts, 
and the opportunities he may give an opponent to defeat 
him for reelection, to render much service looking to any 
fundamental reorganization of rural education. 

Steps in the process. The necessary reorganizations are 
of such a fundamental character that they will have to be 
superimposed from above, sweeping away from before 
them the opposition of both county and district school of- 
ficials. The State, in the exercise of its inherent right to 
demand constructive reforms, must demand a reorganiza- 
tion of rural education which will create a system adapted 
to modern rural educational needs, one under v/hich busi- 
ness can be transacted in a modern manner, and one under 
which rapid progress along modern lines will be possible. 

The steps in the process will, in all probability, be those 
we have just outlined. The district system of school or- 
ganization and administration, with its horde of unintelli- 
gent trustees, will need to be swept aside for a county unit 
of school organization and administration. The township, 
as an intermediate stage, might be an improvement over 
the district, but it is too small, and it is not well adapted 
to the real needs of the situation. The many boards of dis- 
trict school trustees should be abolished and a sub-district 
school director, T\ath very limited powers, substituted to act 
as an agent and representative of the county board of edu- 
cation. Lay county boards of education, elected by the 
people to represent them in matters of educational poHcy, 



APPLICATION TO COUNTY CONTROL 455 

procedure, and finance, should be provided to select the 
educational experts who are to organize and direct the new 
kind of county educational system; while county reorgani- 
zation commissions will be needed to study and map the 
counties and to prepare comprehensive reorganization plans, 
involving the counties as a whole, and providing for second- 
ary as well as elementary education. After such plans have 
been approved by state authority, they should be ordered 
put into operation. Counties which refuse to reorganize 
their school systems on a proper educational basis, and to 
provide properly for the needs of their children, should be 
penalized by a reduction of the apportionment of state 
funds to no more than would be demanded for the same 
educational facilities now provided, if regrouped under a 
proper educational reorganization. 

After a few years of operation under such a county-unit 
reorganization, each county would have a much smaller 
number of community-center consolidated schools, with 
partial or complete high schools attached, adequate and 
professional supervision and direction, and a new and effec- 
tive type of rural education. What now seems so wonderful 
and so exceptional, when carried through here and there 
by some energetic and persuasive county superintendent, 
would then become the rule. The chief right of which the 
people of the rural districts would be deprived by such an 
interposition of the State would be the right to continue 
to mismanage the education of their children. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Why is it that cooperation between district trustees is almost im- 
possible to obtain for any improvement in educational organization? 

2. What do you understand to be meant by a redirection of rural edu- 
cation? 

3. What effect does the short tenure of office of county superintendents 
of schools have upon their independence? 



456 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

4. What effect does election from among the body of the citizenship have 
upon the salaries of comity superintendents? 

5. Why is it impossible for the district system of organization to provide 
schools for rural children which will meet present-day rural educa- 
tional needs? 

6. Enumerate the advantages of a county unit in the matter of employ- 
ing, placing, and paying teachers. 

7. The larger cost for a good consolidated school is often urged as an 
objection. Which is the more expensive, a $1200 school for an aver- 
age daily attendance of 15, or a $12,000 school for an average daily 
attendance of 130? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. Investigate and report on the plan of organization and working of 
the county-unit system in 

(a) Maryland. (d) Louisiana. 

(&) Georgia. (e) Alabama, 

(c) Utah. (/) Tennessee. 

2. Find how many district school trustees are needed for the schools in 
a number of the district-system States. 

3. Collect the tax rates for the different school districts in some district- 
system county, and show the distribution in rates and in per-cajnta 
cost for schools in the county. 

4. Outline a survey of some rural county, showing the plan of work and 
kind of information desired, such as would need to be made for a 
county educational reorganization commission. (Williams's survey 
forms a good type.) 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Cubberley, E. P. The Improvement of Rural Schools. 76 pp. Houghton 
Mifflin Co., Boston, 1912. 

A brief statement of the problem under the headings of "Money," "Organization," 
and "Supervision." 

Cubberley, E. P. Rural Life and Education. 367 pp. Houghton Mifflin 
Co., Boston, 1914. Many maps and illustrations. 

A study of the rural-school problem as a phase of the rural-life problem. Chapter 
XIV describes the county-unit system of Baltimore County, Maryland. 

Cubberley, E. P. State and County Educational Reorganization. 257 pp. 
Macmillan Co., New York, 1914. 

The essential features of a school system organized according to good administrative 
principles, and stated in the form of a constitution and school code for the hypotheti- 
cal State of Osceola. A legal statement of the rural organization problem. 

Cubberley, E. P., and Elliott, E. C. State and County School Administra- 
tion. Vol. I, textbook; vol. ii, source book. Macmillan Co., New York, 
1915 and 1916. 



APPLICATION TO COUNTY CONTROL 457 

The source book reproduces (Chapters VII-X) a number of good articles bearing 
on the district township, and county-unit systems, and the same chapters in the 
textbook state the principles involved in the proper educational administration of rural 
and village schools. 

'^vans, L. B. "The Comity Unit in Educational Organization in Georgia"; 
in Educational Review, vol. ii, pp. 369-73. (April, 1896.) 

Describes the county-unit system as found in Richmond County, Georgia. 
Knorr, G. W. Consolidated Rural Schools, and the Organization of a County 
System. 99 pp. Bulletin no. 232, Office of Experimental Stations, U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1910. 

An excellent bulletin on consolidation and the county unit. Contains much valuable 
data as to costs. 

Monahan, A. C. County-Unit Organization for the Administration of Rural 
Schools. 56 pp. Bulletin no. 44, 1914, U.S. Bureau of Education. 

Describes the units of organization and the existing county-unit systems, and con- 
tains a good description of the working of the county-unit plan in Utah. 

Williams, J. H. Proposed Educational Reorganization of San Mateo County, 
California. Bulletin, 1916, U.S. Bureau of Education. 

A detailed survey of a rather difficult county, showing how it could be reorganized 
under a county-unit system with a marked increase in educational efficiency and a 
decrease in cost. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

APPLICATION TO STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION 

State organization undeveloped. When we pass from 
an examination of county educational organization to state 
educational organization, and examine such in the light of 
the best of our city administrative experience, we also find 
conditions which, in most of our States, also call for a re- 
organization and redirection along better administrative 
lines. In most of our States the office of chief state educa- 
tional officer is still in a markedly undeveloped condition, is 
statistical and clerical to a high degree, and the office has for 
long given evidence of but little of that educational states- 
manship which is based only on a careful and an intelligent 
study of educational conditions and administrative needs. 
The state office, instead of leading the way, too often fol- 
lows. In but few of our States, too, does the state depart- 
ment of education or the office of state superintendent of 
public instruction exercise anything like the influence which 
ought to attach to such a department or officer. 

The chief state school office. The chief trouble lies not 
so much with the superintendents themselves as with the 
political conditions which have produced them and which 
surround their office. The plan of selecting the chief school 
officer for a State on a basis of partisan nomination and 
election, of limiting the choice to citizens of the State, and 
of rotating the office around among the electorate at fre- 
quent intervals, has effectively prevented any large de- 
velopment of the office along sound administrative lines. 
The plan of nomination and election from among the body 



APPLICATION TO STATE CONTROL 459 

of the electorate tends to bring to the front the old, ambi- 
tious, and reasonably successful practitioner, but does not, 
except by rare chance, tend to secure the services of a pro- 
fessional expert and constructive leader, such as our state 
school systems are so much in need of to-day. 

The political method has been discarded in the selection 
of all of the newer state experts — horticulturist, entomolo- 
gist, geologist, health experts, sanitary experts, highway 
engineers, and the various commission experts — and it 
should be discarded in the educational service also. The chief 
state educational office can never realize its possibilities nor 
enlist the services of the best prepared men until it is taken 
completely out from under the incubus of partisan politics, 
until this official is clothed with powers commensurate with 
the responsibilities of the position and freed from all forms 
of pohtical interference, and until the office is free to seek 
the man without reference to any other condition than 
competency properly to fill the position. The clear and 
unmistakable lesson to be drawn from a study of city school 
administrative experience is that political nomination and 
election is not the way to secure competent leadership for so 
important an educational office. 

Potential importance of the office. The chief educational 
office to-day, in most of our States, offers but few attractions 
to any one who is properly prepared for it, and the result is 
written over the educational history, legislation, and ad- 
ministrative organization of most of our American States. 
While our cities have been making remarkable progress in 
organization and administration, and have been attracting 
to their service the best prepared men and women engaged 
in educational work, the chief state educational office has 
grown but little in importance, has commanded but little 
real influence in the State, has been given but limited 
powers by the legislature, and often has been avoided by the 



460 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

best-prepared men in the State. The oflSce, at least poten- 
tially, as was stated in Chapter III, is a more important 
office than that of president of the state university of the 
State; that it is not such actually is a matter of common 
knowledge. In the light of the best of our city administra- 
tive experience, in the light of other state experience with 
scientific experts and commissions, and in the light of the 
best corporation experience, it is evident that the office 
cannot hope to become one of large educational importance 
until it throws off the political incubus under which it still 
labors in nearly three fourths of our American States. 

State departments of education. In Chapter III the evo- 
lution of the chief state educational officer and state boards 
for educational control were briefly traced, and some of the 
more important of the newer educational problems facing 
such officers and boards were stated. Most of the problems 
are of recent origin, and they are rapidly becoming more 
important. More and more as the school passes from a 
mere teaching institution to a constructive agent of democ- 
racy does the need for constructive leadership become in- 
creasingly evident. Some of our States are beginning to 
recognize this need and, within the past decade a number 
of state educational reorganizations have been made, the 
general tendency of which has been the development of 
stronger and better organized state departments of educa- 
tion. 

Generally speaking, and taken as a whole, and disregard- 
ing individual exceptions, the tendency of these recent 
reorganizations has been to evolve a small appointed state 
board of education, for general educational control; to con- 
centrate the different functions of educational control in 
this body, instead of in a number of state educational 
boards of various types; to eliminate ex officio boards and 
officers; to change the state school officer from an inde- 



APPLICATION TO STATE CONTROL 461 

pendently elected oflBcial to an executive officer of the state 
board of education, selected and appointed by it and re- 
sponsible to it; ^ to provide for the appointment of a num- 
ber of educational experts, to supervise and administer 
different divisions of a state educational department; to 
clothe all of these officers with important powers and duties 
and responsibilities; and materially to enlarge the powers 
and duties of this state educational department in the admin- 
istration and supervision of the school system of the State. 
In other words, the general tendency has been to apply to 
state educational organization and administration the fun- 
damental principles of intelligent organization and adminis- 
tration so far evolved by our cities in the management of 
their schools. 

Controlling principles. An application of the best prin- 
ciples of city school organization and administration, as 
well as the best principles of public service and corporation 
control, would seem to indicate the following as sound 
principles in the matter of state educational organization : — 

Z. General control. 

1. There should be a state board for educational control, con- 
sisting of a small number of representative citizens of the 
State, to be appointed by the governor and for relatively 
long terms. A board of five or seven members, with the 
term of one expiring each year, represents in many respects 
a desirable form of organization. 

2. In making appointments to such a board the sole basis for 
appointment should be the ability to serve the schools of 
the State, and without reference to such extraneous con- 
siderations as residence, party affiliation, race, sex, reli- 
gious connections, or occupation. 

S. There should be no ex officio members on the board. The 

^ In many of our States this is not possible Avithout amending the state 
constitution, and in a number of the recent state educational reorganiza- 
tions such a change was not made largely because it was not at the time 
possible. 



462 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

general experience with such members is that they are not 
usually helpful, and not infrequently they interfere se- 
riously with efficiency. The governor, as the appointing 
power, and the superintendent of public instruction or his 
equivalent, as the executive officer of the board, should 
in no case be made members of it. 

4. Members of the state board should be paid their neces- 
sary traveling expenses in attending meetings, but should 
not be paid a yer diem for an unlimited number of days 
or any large yearly honorarium. The position should be a 
distinct honor and not a political plum. 

5. The most important function of the board is the selection 
of its executive officers, — the commissioner of education,^ 
the assistant commissioners, secretary, business manager, 
and statistician. In making all such appointments the 
board should be free from all restrictions as to residence, 
party, race, sex, or occupation, their only purpose being 
to select the best persons obtainable for the money at 
hand. They should also be as free to determine the quali- 
fications, fix the salaries, and control the tenure of such 
officers as are boards of trustees of universities in the 
matter of their presidents and professors. 

6. It should be the prime function of such a board to hear 
reports and receive recommendations from its executive 
officers, to determine policy, to direct that work be 
undertaken, to appropriate funds for specific purposes 
or undertakings, to stand as a buffer between its experts 
and criticism of proper actions, to approve a budget 
of expenditures and to ask the legislature for needed 
appropriations, and to recommend desirable legislation to 
the legislature. 

7. A clear distinction between what is legislative and hence 
a function of the board, and what is executive work and 
hence a function of its executive officers, should at all 
times be kept in mind. It is primarily the business of the 
board to legislate; it is primarily the business of the ex- 
perts it employs to execute what has been decided upon. 

1 This title has been substituted for superintendent of public instruction, 
superintendent of education, secretary of the state board, or other equiva- 
lent title in all the recent reorganizations where the office has been made 
appointive by the state board of education. 



APPLICATION TO STATE CONTROL 463 

I/. Educational control, 

1. Acting through its executive officers the board should 
study the educational conditions and needs of the State, 
enforce the use of uniform records and reports, study the 
effect of the operation of the educational laws, recommend 
needed changes to the legislature, and so classify and 
standardize the educational work and institutions of the 
State as to promote their efficiency, harmonize educational 
interests, and prevent wasteful duplication of work. 

2. Acting through its executive officers the state board should 
have general oversight and supervision of the administra- 
tion of the public school system of the State, and should 
maintain constant studies of its operation with a view to 
its improvement. In doing so, however, both the board and 
its executive officers should keep clearly in mind that the 
prime purpose of state oversight is to improve the service 
of communities to the children under their control, and 
that state uniformity and obedience to rules and regula- 
tions are of far less importance than the stimulation of 
local initiative. Unity in essentials and much liberty in 
details, and the attainment of results rather than the 
following of any set plan, should be kept clearly in mind 
as aims in state educational control. 

8. Acting through an examining division the board should 
certificate all teachers for the schools of the State, and 
should standardize the professional, life, normal school, 
and college diplomas from other States in terms of the 
standards maintained within the State. 

4. In cooperation with the state library, and as a board of 
control for such, the state board of education should aid 
in the establishment of county, school, and traveling 
libraries. 

5. In cooperation with other departments of the state govern- 
ment, the state board should assist in the enforcement of 
the laws relating to schools, health, compulsory education, 
child labor, and child welfare throughout the State. 

6. Through a division of special education the board should 
have supervisory control of the educational departments 
of all charitable, penal, and reformatory institutions main- 
tained by the State, with power to make rules and regula- 
tions concerning the management of the same. 



464 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

///. The chief state school oflcer. 

1. As the chief executive officer of the state system of public 

instruction and of the state board of education, he should 
have power to see that the laws relating to education are 
enforced, and should be able to institute proceedings to 
give force to laws, or to rules and regulations or decisions 
made in conformity with law. 

2. Acting through a legal division he should have power to 
settle all controversies arising over any matter within the 
scope of the powers delegated by law to school authorities, 
and he should be the final authority in the interpretation 
of the meaning and intent of the school code, and methods 
of procedure under it. 

3. Acting under his direction should be a number of assist- 
ants, as heads of divisions, each appointed upon his recom- 
mendation, as are heads of departments in a university 
upon the recommendation of the president, and each 
charged with certain duties and responsibilities. 

The general scope, organization, and the channels of ad- 
ministration of such a state educational department are 
shown in Figure 36. 

Purpose of such an organization. The prime purpose of 
such an educational organization is the creation of a state 
department of education along the lines of the best of our 
administrative experience, one analogous in authority to 
our more recent creations in other branches of the state 
service, and one possessed of a sufficient number of trained 
workers to be able to evolve and carry out, over a consid- 
erable period of time, a wise, intelligent, and constructive 
state educational policy, based on a careful study of condi- 
tions and needs within and the best of administrative prac- 
tices without the State. The evolution of such a conscious 
constructive state educational policy, the awakening of sup- 
port for it among the leading workers and citizens of the 
State, and the gradual carrying of it into effect is a service 
of prime educational importance. 

Such a guiding state educational policy is seldom evident 



Govemoi 



Boards of 

Trustees 

for State 

Xonnal Schools 



Stat 
of E 



STATE COMMISSI 



Business 
Manager 



Principal? 



Janitors 

and 

Employees 



Instructors 



Suident? 



Assistant Commissioners, as Heac 




Fig. 36. STATE EDU( 




)F EDUCATION 



Board of 

Regents for 

the State 

University 




President 



Business 
Manager 



Professors 



Janitors 

and 

Employees 



Students 



Educ'l. Depts. 

of Penal and 

Reformatory Insts, 



City 
Boards of Education 



CITY SUPERINTENDENTS 
OF SCHOOLS 



Secretary 

and 

Bus. Mgr. 

I 



Educational 
Departments 



Property 
Department 

t 



City Organization -Eigs. 12-14. 



IL ORGANIZATION 



APPLICATION TO STATE CONTROL 465 

except where there has been capable and continuous leader- 
ship at the top, and it is here that our States have been 
especially weak. In the study of their educational history 
there is little evidence, in most of them, of any well-thought- 
out educational policy carried out over any long period of 
time.^ Legislation has been remedial and of a patch- work 
type, rather than constructively reorganizing, and the type 
of educational statesmanship described in Chapter XI has 
been conspicuous chiefly by its absence. 

State administrative problems. There are numerous dis- 
tinctively state problems in the organization and admin- 
istration of public education which should challenge the 
best thinking of the officers of a state educational depart- 
ment. All of these require careful study and years of wise 
educational direction before much in the line of visible re- 
sults can be obtained. Some require a careful adjustment 
of state oversight to local conditions and needs. A mere 
enumeration of the more important of these is all that can 
be given here. To each, however, certain fundamental prin- 
ciples apply, and action taken contrary to these fundamental 
principles is action which sooner or later will need to be 
reversed. 

These special state problems group themselves about the 
questions of the nature and extent of state oversight and 
control; the extension of educational advantages; proper 

1 Of all our States, Massachusetts certainly stands forth as the one 
which shows most evidence of having followed, and for the longest time, a 
somewhat definite policy and plan in dealing with the cities and towns 
of the State. Much of the educational progress which Massachusetts has 
made, and made with little or no state aid to serve as a stimulus to action, 
and often in opposition to the strong conservatism of the towns, has been 
due to this relatively well-thought-out and consistently followed state edu- 
cational policy, worked out by the eight carefully selected leaders who have 
served the State during the nearly eighty years since her state administra- 
tive history really began. The state board of education in Massachusetts 
has always appointed its chief executive ofl5cer; the State has never relied 
on the political parties to provide leaders for its school system. 



466 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

methods in taxation, and in the apportionment of school 
funds; the provision of adequate professional supervision 
for all schools; the best subordinate unit or units for local 
control; the large social and educational problems surround- 
ing the rural and the village school ; industrial and vocational 
training; the material equipment of schools; health and san- 
itary control; the State and the teacher; the State and the 
child; and the relation of the State to non-state educational 
agencies. 

Each of these major problems in state educational organ- 
ization and administration deserves special study, and when 
clear and provable principles of action or standards of re- 
quirement have been formulated, such should be of much 
value in guiding state educational authorities in the admin- 
istrative control of the school system of the State and in 
their dealings with subordinate administrative imits. 

The State to establish minima. There is a certain de- 
markation between the powers and duties of the State and 
the powers and duties of communities which ought to be 
observed in all educational legislation and all state admin- 
istrative control. This line of demarkation will vary some- 
what in the different States, according to the degree of 
educational progress already made and the peculiar genius 
of its institutions, and also with the type of subordinate 
administrative unit involved, but the line nevertheless ex- 
ists in all. In many matters — such as the kind or kinds 
of schools which must or may be provided, the length of 
school term which must be maintained, the nature of the 
instruction, standards for the certification of teachers, 
school supervision to be required, sanitary standards to be 
maintained, equipment to be provided, rates and forms of 
taxation to be imposed, minimum salaries to be paid, com- 
pulsion of children to attend, and child-labor law^s — it is 
essentially the duty and business of the State to determine 



APPLICATION TO STATE CONTROL 467 

the minimum standards which will be permitted, and per- 
haps to classify communities into groups and require dif- 
ferent minima from each, but leaving to any community the 
right to exceed these minima if it desires to do so. 

From time to time, as different educational needs and 
conditions may seem to require, it is also the business of the 
State to raise these minima for any or all of the groups, and 
in doing so the State should always act on the basis of what 
is best and now possible for the children of the State as a 
whole, rather than on the basis of what the poorer com- 
munities can do or provide. Certain communities can and 
ought to do more than others, and this should be kept 
clearly in mind by the State. 

State stimulation vs. state uniformity. The common ten- 
dency toward an unnecessary state uniformity, which too 
often follows any centralization of authority and which is 
so stifling to community activity, should be carefully 
avoided by the State. To give large liberty to communities 
in non-essentials and in the choice of tools by means of 
which they will carry out the state purpose, and to free the 
larger and more progressive communities from a uniformity 
perhaps necessary for small and more backward communi- 
ties, ought to be an essential feature in a wise state educa- 
tional policy. 

To keep the school systems of the different city and county 
units in touch with community needs and expressive of the 
best community wishes, and at the same time safeguard 
these school systems from direction by inefficient hands; to 
protect the schools from local exploitation and neglect, and 
at the same time preserve them from the deadening rule of 
a state bureaucracy; to leave to the city and county school 
districts as large liberty in matters of courses of study, text- 
books, and methods of work as is consistent with the secur- 
ing of the results desired by the State; and to see that the 



468 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

local school systems are adequately financed, instead of 
being subordinated to the more pressing demands of other 
city departments — these are problems of first importance 
in the relation of the State to its subordinate educational 
units. While avoiding bureaucracy and a deadening imi- 
formity in non-essentials, the State, as the guardian of the 
educational rights of its future citizenship, must see that 
local governments and individuals do not override these for 
local or political or selfish ends. 

It is of importance that a state department of education 
be a student of conditions and needs, and that it work 
constantly to stimulate communities to new and desirable 
activity. It is easy for state department officials to become 
inspectors; it is much more difficult for them to rise to the 
higher levels of leadership. Yet this higher level of leader- 
ship is what a state department of education, as represented 
by its state board of education and all of its executive 
officers, should primarily represent. The State, in so far as 
it represents the interests of the education of its children 
and the improvement of society through pubhc educa^ 
tion, should become an active, energetic agent, working 
constantly and intelligently for the improvement of edu- 
cational conditions throughout the State. For too long the 
State has been rather an interpreter of statutes, a collector 
of statistics as to what has been done, and a passive tax 
collector and distributor of funds to the different school 
districts. A study of the results of half a century of city 
administrative progress points out clearly the need of a 
different type of state educational organization to meet the 
needs of the future of public education in most of our Amer- 
ican States. 



APPLICATION TO STATE CONTROL 469 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. What are the actual powers and duties of the chief school officer in 
your State? 

2. What has been the average tenure of such official? The longest 
tenure? 

3. Does the legislative history covering the past quarter-century in your 
State give evidence of a well-thought-out educational policy? Illus- 
trate. 

4. Enumerate the different bureaus, departments, and commissions in 
your State, which now employ expert service on the basis of training 
and competency. 

5. Suppose that the president of the state university were elected by 
political nomination and election, and for two- or four-year terms 
from among the body of the citizenship, with the usual rotation in 
office, and that the professors were appointed from among the citizens 
prominent in the dominant political party. What would be the result 
on the university? 

6. Make a diagram to illustrate the form of state educational organiza- 
tion in your State, and contrast it with Figure 36. 

7. What is the objection to laws requiring the appointment, as members 
of state boards, of a woman, a representative of labor, or equal di- 
vision among the two leading political parties? 

8. What is the advantage in leaving the state board of education free to 
fix the salaries of all its experts, instead of fixing them in the law? Is 
there any reason why the best city administrative experience should 
not control here? 

9. Contrast legislative and executive functions, with reference to state 
board control. 

10. What are the advantages of making the state department of educa- 
tion a court of final appeal as to the meaning and intent of the school 
code? 

11. Should a state board of education or a state department ever de- 
termine the courses of study for the schools of the State? Why? 

12. Should the choice of textbooks be left to the different units for super- 
vision in the State (city or county) ? Why? 

13. Why is it desirable that the state educational department should be 
given supervisory oversight of the educational departments of all char- 
itable, penal, and reformatory institutions in the State? 

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT 

1. The nature and extent of desirable state oversight and control. 

2. To what extent should the State require the extension of educational 
advantages? 

3. Best methods for school support, and the extent of desirable state aid. 



470 PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTEATION 

4. Best methods for the apportionment of state and county school funds. 

5. Nature and extent of state aid for secondary education. 

6. Desirability of small subsidies in inaugurating new educational work. 

7. Best method of securing professional supervision for rural and town 
schools, which shall be as close and effective as for city schools. 

8. State control of the certification of teachers. 

9. Certification of teachers by examination vs. training. 

10. Desirability of a special certificate for all supervisors, and nature of 
the requirements for. , 

11. Desirable state encouragement of industrial and vocational training. 

12. The degree of desirable state oversight of the material equipment of 
the schools, including school buildings. 

13. Same for health and sanitary control. 

14. The state normal school and the training of teachers for the State. 

15. The high-school teachers' training-class. 

16. Desirabihty of requiring some form of state reading-circle work of all 
teachers. 

17. The State and the teacher, as relates to salary control, tenure, and 
pensions. 

18. The State as the guardian of the educational rights of children. 

19. The State and non-state educational agencies. 

20. State inspection and control vs. state leadership. 

21. Desirable state minima. 

22. Dangerous state uniformity. 

23. State stimulation to new and desirable educational activity. 

24. Contrast the powers and methods of securing progress for the state 
educational departments of New York and Massachusetts. 

25. Draw up a desirable form of state educational organization for your 
State, and estimate its cost over and above the cost for the present 
organization. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Butler, N. M. "Problems of Educational Administration"; in Educational 
Review, vol. 32, pp. 515-24. (December, 1906.) 
The larger problems of educational statesmanship- 

Cubberley, E. P. "Fundamental Problems in Educational Administra- 
tion"; in Educational Administration and Supervision, vol. i, pp. 
3-12. (January, 1915.) 

States the fundamental administrative problems involved in state and city educa- 
tional administration. 

Cubberley, E. P. State and County Educational Reorganization. 257 pp. 
Macmillan Co., New York, 1914. 

The essential features of a school system reorganized according to good administra- 
tive principles, stated in the form of a constitution and school code for the hypotheti- 
cal State of Osceola. Chapter I outlines the state department of education in detail. 



APPLICATION TO STATE CONTROL 471 

Cubberley, E. P., and Elliott, E. C. State and County School Administra- 
tion. Vol. I, textbook; vol. ii, source book. Macmillan Co., New York, 
1915 and 1916. 

The source book (Chapters V and XI), contains a number of articles on state educa- 
tional organization and administration, and the textbook states the principles in- 
volved in proper state educational organization. 

Finegan, T. E. "Uniformity of Standards in School Administration"; in 
Proceedings of National Education Association, 1913, pp. 122-31. 

Supremacy of state school board autonomy; independent maintenance; and general 
state control. A state centralization point of view. 

Monahan, A. C. Organization of State Departments of Education. 46 pp. 
Bulletin no. 5, 1915, U.S. Bureau of Education, 
Describes present state organizations, and enumerates the present state staffs. 
Monroe, Paul (editor). Cyclopedia of Education. See articles on "State 
Boards of Education," "State Educational Organization," and 
"State School Administration," in vol. v, pp. 408-15. 

States the fundamental principles in organization, and the chief problema in ad- 
ministrative control. 

Snedden, D. "Centralized vs. Localized Administration of Public Educa- 
tion"; in his Problems of Educational Readjustment, pp. 233-59. 
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1913. 

Advantages and disadvantages of state centralization, and correctives of its dis- 
advantages. 

Webster, W. C. Recent Centralizing Tendencies in State Educational Ad- 
ministration. 78 pp. Columbia University Studies in History of 
Economics and Public Law, vol. vin, no. 2. 
Ad old but valuable sketch of tendencies. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



A.cceIeration, 294. 

Accounting, school, 408; better 

methods, 417; forms for, uniform, 

418. 
^ Adjustments in courses of study, 294. 
Administrative experience, city, sum- 
marized, 433. 
Adult instruction, 312. 
Annual school reports, 425. 
Art schools, special, 312. 
Assistant superintendents, 220; and 

the superintendent, 187. 
Attendance, effect of increased, on 

promotion rate, 361; decUne after 

sixth year, 370. 
Attendance department. The, 357; 

in a small city, 359; registration of 

children, 362. 
Attitude toward schools, early, 3. 
Auxiliary educational agencies, 397. 
"Average Child," 294. 

Baltimore plan, the, 307. 

Batavia plan, the, 301. 

Blind, classes for the, 311. 

Board members, school, types of, 
111, 123; rewards for faithful serv- 
ice, 125. 

Boards, school, for school control, 
85; special governing, 85; con- 
tinuous and changing, 110. 

Boards of education, recent reor- 
ganizations, 86; tendencies in 
reorganization, 87; size of, 90; 
basis of selection, 92; selection by 
wards vs. at large, 92; advantages 
of small, 92; appointment v.t. elec- 
tion, 95; term of oflBce, 97; pay 
for service, 90; as a body, 109; 
committee form of control by, 
112; in cities, 112, 113; real work 
of, 119; legislative vs. executive 
functions of, 119, and superin- 
tendent, proper relations of, 148. 



Bonding for school buildings, 891. 
Budget, a better school, 416. 
Building costs, 391. 
Building, school, new type of, 

needed, 386; Pittsburg type, 387. 
Bureaucracy, state, dangers of, 63. 
Business department, work of, 376; 

purpose of, 377, 379; misdirection 

of, 378. 
Business organization of cities, 487. 

Cabinet solidarity, 185. 

Cambridge plan, the new, 304. 

Census, school, 362; continuing, 
363. 

Charity conception, elimination of, 
11. 

Cheap school system, 408. 

Cities, size and distribution of, 160; 
why trained men go to, 446. 

Citizen, the, and schools, 103. 

City, administrative problems in, 
prominence of, 60; distinctive 
contribution of, 60; vs. State, 61; 
problems of relationship with 
State, 63 ; government and schools, 
102; administrative experience of, 
summarized, 433; an educational 
unit, 433; administrative organ- 
ization of, 435; supervisory organ- 
ization of, 436; business organiza- 
tion and finance, 437; initiative 
and educational progress in, 438; 
unmistakable lessons from organ- 
ization of, 440. 

City district, an evolution, 56. 

City school superintendents, first, 
58. 

City school systems, recent rapid 
growth of, 57; administrative 
organization of, in small cities, 
161, 165; in large cities, 170, 
172. 

Clerical department, 375; work of. 



476 



INDEX 



876; purpose of, 377, 379; misdi- 
rection of, 378. 

Clinical psychologist, 336. 

Commission form of government 
and schools, 101. 

Committee action illustrated, 116. 

Committee form of control, 112. 

Committee service, time-consuming, 
115. 

Committee system, development of, 
79. 

Committees of school boards, con- 
fusion in functions of, 118. 

Community, the, and superintend- 
ent of schools, 152. 

Compulsory attendance, 357. 

Constitutions, early state, 3. 

Conviction, present, 12. 

Costs, of school-buildings, 391; 
school. 408. 

County boards of control, 40. 

County educational organization, 
35, 441; reorganization, problems 
and need of, 41, 443. 

County school administration, 35. 

County school officer, evolution of, 
36; early duties of, 37; new duties 
of, 38; new demands on, 39. 

County superintendency, 445. 

County unit organization, rudimen- 
tary, 445 ; details of plan for same, 
449. 

Courses of study, construction of, 
and types, 274, 277; superintend- 
ent and, 274; information or 
knowledge courses, 277; depend- 
ence upon textbooks, 278; ad- 
ministration of, 280; develop- 
ment type of, 283; growing courses, 
285; variations between schools, 
286; study of local problems and 
needs, 288; economy of time, 289; 
adjustments and (hfferentiations, 
294. 

Crippled children, schools for, 311. 

Deaf, oral instruction of, 311. 
Defects, special schools for children 

with, 311. 
Delegated authority, state, 19. 
Demonstration teaching, 243. 
Differentiated-course plan, the, 306. 



Differentiations in courses, 294. 
Disciplinary classes, 311. 
District, the city, 55. 
District officers, 7. 
District organization, evolution of, 6. 
District trustee control, 442. 
District unit, the, 5, 49; bad features 
of, 50; not necessary, 52. 

Economy of time in education, 

289. 
Educating a school board, 146. 
Educational department, central 

position of, 173. f 

Educational needs, large future, 

393. 
Educational organization, in cities 

of different size, 165; faulty, 175. 
Efficiency departments in school 

systems, 334. 
Efficiency experts, 325. 
Efficiency in teaching, salaries based 

on, 263; t>T)e plans for estimating, 

265; incentives to growth, 267. 
Efficiency movement, 325. 
Elizabeth plan, the, 304. 
Epileptic children, classes for, 311. 
Evening schools, 312. 
Executive functions, differentiations 

of, 82; vs. legislative functions, 

119. 
Executive heads of departments, 

174. 
Executive officers, selection of, 121, 

122. 
Expenditure, intelligent, 381. 
Experimental pedagogy, 336. 
Experimental rooms or schools, 287. 

Funds, school, 408; independence 
of city council, 411; problem of 
increased, 410; competition for- 
413. 

Gardening, school, 404. 
Gary plan, the, 317. 
Gary-tjT)e schools, 388. 
Gifted children, classes for, 311. 

Health supervision, 344; stages of 
work, 345; scope of work, 347; 
control of, 348; large- city plan, 



INDEX 



477 



S50; smaller-city plan, 351; the 
teacher and, 352; importance of, 
353. 
Home schools, 312. 

Industrial classes, 311. 
Intermediate school, theory of, 313. 

Library, public, 397; cooperation of, 
with schools, 397; administrative 
control of, 398; in future school, 
400. 

Los Angeles schools, organization of, 
b 314. 

Mannheim plan« the, 308. 
Massachusetts a type in city-school 

evolution, 74. 
Measurement by comparison, 328. 
Measurement of results, 329. 
Minimum requirements. State to 

establish, 466. 

Neighborhood schools, 312. 
Newton, Massachusetts, schools, 

reorgam'zation of, 315. 
Non-English-speaking classes, 310. 
Non-promotion, results of, 296. 
North Denver plan, 302. 

Open-air schools, 311. f 
Over-age classes, 310. 
Over-ageness, causes of, 298, 

Parental schools, 311, 367. 

Personal equation, the, 186. 

Pittsbiu-g building plan, 388. 

Playground, public, 401; costs and 
use, 403; organization, 412. 

Portland plan, the, 305. 

Principals, the school, 190; increasing 
effectiveness of, 192. 

Problems, state administrative, 465. 

Production, continuous survey of, 
337. 

Promotional examinations for teach- 
ers, 261. 

Promotional plans, 300. 

Promotional rates, 299. 

Property department, school, 384; 
purpose of, 385. 

Pueblo plan, the, 302. 



"Rate-bill," the, 4. 

Reading-circle work, 234. 

Records, and reports, 423; good, a 
necessity, 423; of pupil, 424; of 
school system, 425. 

Registration of school-children, 362. 

Reorganization of upper grades, 312. 

Reorganizations, fundamental, 312. 

Report, the annual school, 425; effec- 
tive presentation in, 427; enlight- 
ening the public, 428. 

Retardation, 294. 

Salaries, of teachers, 250; based on 
positions, 257; defects of such 
schedules, 259; additional grants 
for study, 259; based on grades in 
service, 260; based on efficiency, 
263; type plans for estimating, 
265. 

Salary demands, reasonable, 253. 

Salary increases, automatic, 254. 

Salary schedule, essentials of a 
good, 268. 

San Francisco, California, school 
funds in, 414. 

Santa Barbara plan, the, 306. 

Schenectady, New York, school 
funds in, 414. 

School board, evolution of, 78. 

School budget, 416. 

School committee, rise of, 74. 

School control, present conceptions 
as to, 83; disadvantages of city, 
104. 

School laws, first, 10. 

School organization, city and county 
contrasted, 441. 

School property department, 384; 
purpose of, 385. 

School-building, larger use of, 390; 
bonding for, 391; principal and 
interest cost for, 392. 

School-gardening, 404. 

Schools, cheap, 408; eady, 4; new 
types of, 310; trade, 312. 

Standard tests, 330. 

Standards for measurement, 329; 
need for, as guides, 332. 

State, the, educational policy of, 25; 
establishment of educational min- 
ima by, 466; problems of relation- 



i78 



INDEX 



ship of, to city, 63; the unit, in 
educational control, 14; vs. city, 61. 

State administrative problems, 465. 

State authorization and control, 14. 

State boards of education, 30; types 
of such boards, 31. 

State control, advantages of, 22; 
disadvantages of, 23. 

State departments of education, 460. 

State educational organization, 27, 
453; good, 33; controlling prin- 
ciples of, 461; purposes of a good, 
464. 

State educational policy, 25. 

State officer, chief, 27, 453; poten- 
tial importance of, 459. 

State school organizations, early, 9. 

State school systems, rise of, 8. 

State sovereignty, recovery of, 20. 

State stimulation vs, state uniform- 
ity, 467. 

Sub-normal, classes for, 311. 

Superintendent of pubUc instruction, 
evolution of office, 28; duties of, 
29; new demands on, 30. 

Superintendent of schools, a new 
profession, 130; importance of, 
131; duties of, 132; education and 
training, 133; apprenticeship, 134; 
learning and working, 135; pitfalls, 
dangerous, 136; qualities, personal 
needed, 137; leadership, qualities 
of, 138; three types of service, 
142; time for larger problems, 143; 
as an organizer, 145; as an execu- 
tive, 149; as a supervisor, 155; 
dangers to be faced, 156; type of, 
comprehensive, 162; place of in a 
small city, 1 65 ; powers, guaranteed, 
170; head of educational depart- 
ment, 177; gives character to de- 
partment, 178; assistant super- 
intendent, 187; and special super- 
visors, 188; courses of study, 274; 
responsibility for school proper- 
ties, 386; state, 458; county, 445; 

Superintendents of schools, assist- 
ant, 220. 

Supervision, evolution of profes- 
sional, 80; deficient, 237; wrong 
type, 239; need for helpful, 240; 
purpose of all, 240. 



Supervisors, 184. 

Supervisory officers and tenure, 218. 

Supervisory organization, charac- 
teristics of good, 180; personnel 
of, 183; underlying purposes of, 
193. 

Supplementary classes, 310. 

Swimming-pools, 390. 

Teachers, sensitiveness to leader- 
ship, 178; selection and tenure, 
198; guarding appointments, im- 
portance of, 201; fundamental 
principles of action in, 202; stand- ^ 
ards which should prevail, 203; 
methods of selecting, 205; right 
rules of action in same, 206; bases 
for selecting, 207; electing appli- 
cants vs. hunting, 209; tenure of. 
usual plan, 210; imcertain terms 
of, 212; life-tenure movement, 
213; effect of life tenure on 
schools, 214; indefinite tenure, 
215; leavening the corps, 225; 
training and supervision, 225; 
local training schools for, 226; 
professional standards for en- 
trance, 226; training vs. attract- 
ing, 230; training of, in service, 
231; meetings with, 233; reading- 
circle work, 234; leaves of absence 
for study, 235; supervision of, 
237; placing for effective work, 
244; pay and promotion, 250; 
adequate pay necessary, 251; 
automatic salary increases, 253; 
reasonable salary demands, 253; 
rewarding growth, 255; stimulat- 
ing industry, 256; health work jn 
the schools, 352. 

Teaching efficiency, salaries based 
on, 263; type plans for estimating, 
265. 

Tests of school work, 329. 

Town, the New England, 44; fea- 
tures of, 46. 

Town control, the original, 7. 

Town school committee, rise of, 74. 

Town and township organization, 
44. 

Towns, subtraction of powers from, 
72. 



INDEX 



479 



Township, the, 47; disadvantages of, 
for administration, 47; not a neces- 
sary unit, 49. 

Trade schools, 312. 

Training schools, local, 226. 

Transference of powers to larger 
units, 21. 

Types of schools, new, 310. 

Ungraded classes, 310, 



Unified administrative organization 

in cities, 436. 
Uniform financial accounts, 418. 
Uniformity, state, 467. 
Unit costs for schools, 419. 
Units of measurement, 329. 

Vocation schools, 311. 

Ward boards of education, 93. 
Ward system, development of, 79, 



RIVERSIDE 
TEXTBOOKS IN EDUCATION 

General Educational Theory 

PSYCHOLOGY FOR NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

By L. A. AvERiLL, Massachusetts State Normal School, Worcester. 

EXPERIMENTAL EDUCATION. 
By F. N. Freeman, University of Chicaga 

HOW CHILDREN LEARN. 
By F. N. Freeman. 

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE COMMON BRANCHES. 

By F. N. Freeman. 

DISCIPLINE AS A SCHOOL PROBLEM. 
By A. C. Perry, Jr. 

AN INTRODUCTION TO EDUCATIONAL SOCIOLOGY. 
By W. R. Smith, Kansas State Normal School. 

TRAINING FOR EFFECTIVE STUDY. 

By F. W. Thomas, State Normal School, Fresoo, California. 

AN INTRODUCTION TO CHILD PSYCHOLOGY. 

By C. W. Waddle, Ph.D., Los Angeles State Normal School 

History of Education 

THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 

By E. P. Cubberlky. 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 

By E. P. CUBBBRLBV. 

READINGS IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 

By E. P. CUBBERLEY. 

PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 

By E. P. CUBBERLET. 

Administration and Supervision of Schools 

HEALTHFUL SCHOOLS: HOW TO BUILD, EQUIP, AND MAIW 
TAIN THEM. 

By May Ayres, J. F. Williams, M.D., University of Cincinnati, and T. J> 
Wood, A.M., M.D., Teachers College, Columbia University. 

PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION. 

By E. P. CUBBERLEY. 

RURAL LIFE AND EDUCATION. 

By E. P. CUBBEKLEY. 

HEALTH WORK IN THE SCHOOLS. 
By E. B. HoAG, M.D., and L. M. Terman, Leland Stanford Junior University. 

MEASURING THE RESULTS OF TEACHING. 
By W. S. Monroe, University of Illinois. 

1926 a 



EDUCATIONAL TESTS AND MEASUREMENTS. 
By W. S. MoNROB, J. C. DeVoss, Kansas State Normal School; and F. J. 
Kelly, University of Kansas. 

THE SUPERVISION OF INSTRUCTION. 

By H. W. NuTT, University of Kansas. 

STATISTICAL METHODS APPLIED TO EDUCATION, 

By H. O. RuGG, University of Chicago. 

CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION AND CONTROL. 

By J. B. Sears, Leland Stanford Junior University. 

A HANDBOOK FOR RURAL SCHOOL OFFICERS. 

By N. D. Showalter, Washington State Normal School. 

THE HYGIENE OF THE SCHOOL CHILD. 

By L. M. Terman. 

THE MEASUREMENT OF INTELLIGENCE. 

By L. M. Terman. 

Test Material for the Measurement of Intelligence. Record Booklets for the 

Measurement of Intelligence. 

THE INTELLIGENCE OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. 
By L. M. Terman. 

Methods of Teaching 

TEACHING LITERATURE IN THE GRAMMAR GRADES AND HIGH 

SCHOOL. 

By Emma M. Bolbnius. 

HOW TO TEACH THE FUNDAMENTAL SUBJECTS. 
By C. N. Kendall and G. A. Mirick. 

HOW TO TEACH THE SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 
By C. N. Kendall and G. A. Mirick. 

SILENT AND ORAL READING. 
By C. R. Stonb. 

THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 

By G. H. Trafton, Sute Normal School, Mankato, Minnesota. 

TEACHING IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 
By T. J. WooKTBR, University of Georgia. 

Secondary Education 

THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL. 

By Thos. H. Briggs, Columbia University. 

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL. 

By Charles Swain Thomas. 

PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

By ALE3CANDER Inglis, Harvard University. 

PROBLEMS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION. 
By David Snbdden, Columbia University. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

i9>6b 



For Q>IIege Courses in Composition ^ 



EXPOSITORY WRITING 

By Mervin James Curl, Formerly Instructor in Englisht Universii$ 
of Illinois. 

" It is a human textbook. The student feds that a real flesh-and- 
blood person is cooperating with him, advising him wisely but never 
condescendingly, hitting the mark without shooting over his head or 
underestimating his intelligence. Sound doctrine is here success- 
fully allied to the vital experiences of all sorts and conditions of men ; 
not only in the text, but in the rich and really workable exercises, 
and in the illustrative specimens, which show the catholicity of the 
writer's taste." — Emerson G. Sutcliffe, Ph.D., University of 
Minnesota f Department of Rhetoric. 

THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF WRITING ENGLISH 

By Gerhard R. Lomer, Formerly Instructor in English in the School 
of Journalism, Columbia University in the City of New York, and 
Margaret Ashmun, Formerly Instructor^ tn English in the Unu 
versity of Wisconsin. 

This textbook gives students all the essentials of composition in a 
concise, well-arranged form. It contains all the necessary facts. 
The treatment is adequate. Clear examples illustrate the various 
rules. Practical exercises provide plenty of drill on the particular 
points that trouble students. 

SENTENCES AND THINKING 

By Norman Foerster, Professor of English, University of North 
Carolina, and J. M. Steadman, Jr., Associate Professor of English, 
Emory University. 

A practice book in sentence making. It really presents three 
books in one: — (i) A Constructive Discussion of Essentials in 
Composition, (2) A Book of Exercises, and (3) A Manual of 
Errors. 



HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1914 



ENGLISH FOR COLLEGE COURSES 

EXPOSITORY WRITING 

By Mervin J. Curl. 

Gives freshmen and sophomores something to write abou^ 

and helps them in their writing. 

SENTENCES AND THINKING 

By Norman Foerster, University of North Carolina, and J. M. 

Stedman, Jr., Emory University. 

A practice book in sentence-making for college freshmen. 

A HANDBOOK OF ORAL READING 

By Lee Emerson Bassett, Leland Stanford Junior University. 

Especial emphasis is placed on the relation of thought and 
speech, technical vocal exercises being subordinated to a study 
of the principles underlying the expression of ideas. Illustra- 
tive selections of both poetry and prose are freely employed. 

ARGUMENTATION AND DEBATING {Re-vhed Edition) 

By William T. Foster, Reed College. 

The point of view throughout is that of the student rather 
than that of the teacher. 

THE RHETORICAL PRINCIPLES OF NARRATION 

By Carroll Lewis Maxcy, Williams College. 
A clear and thorough analysis of the three elements of nar- 
rative writing, viz.: setting, character, and plot. 

REPRESENTATIVE NARRATIVES 

Edited by Carroll Lewis Maxcy. 

This compilation contains twenty-two complete selections of 
various types of narrative composition. 

THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF WRITING ENGLISH 

By Gerhard R. Lomer, Ph.D., and Margaret Ashmun. 
A textbook for use in college Freshman courses. 

HOW TO WRITE SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLES 

By Willard G. Bleyer, University of Wisconsin. 
A textbook for classes in Journalism and in advanced Eng- 
lish Composition. 

NEWSPAPER WRITING AND EDITING 

By Willard G. Bleyer. 

This fully meets the requirements of courses in Journalism 
as given in our colleges and universities, and at the same time 
appeals to practical newspaper men. 

TYPES OF NEWS WRITING 

By Willard G. Bleyer. 

Over two hundred t>i)ical stories taken from representative 
American newspapers are here presented in a form convenient 
for college classes in Journalism. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1421 



NEW issues IN THE 

Riverside Literature Series 

For the Grades 

Aldrich's Mariorie Daw and Other Stories. No. 265. 
Antin's At School in the Promised Land. No 24$. 
Austin's Standisb of Standish, Dramatized. No. 217. 
BuRRouGHs's The Wit of a Duck, and Other Papers. No. 259. 
1r viNG's Tales from the Alhambra, Adapted by Josephine Brower. 
No. 260. 

Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know. Part I, 

No. 257. Part II, No. 258. 
Muir's The Boyhood of a Nattiralist. No. 247. 
Sharp's Ways of the Woods. No. 266. 
Wiggin's Birds' Christmas Carol. No. 232. 
WiGGiN's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. No. 264. 
Selections for Reading and Memorizing. Grades I- VIII. Seven 

volumes, Nos. FF-MM inclusive. 

For High Schools 

Arnold's Essay on Wordsworth and Selected Lyrics by Words- 
worth. No. 269. 

Boswell's The Life of Johnson. Abridged. No. 248. 

BuRRouGHs's Natiure Near Home, and Other Papers. No. 270. 

Clarke'^ A Treasury of War Poetry. No. 262. 

Keller's The Story of My Life. No. 2 53. 

Liberty, Peace, and Justice. (Documents and Addresses, 1776- 
1918.) No. 261. 

Mills's Being Good to Bears. No. 271. 

Palmer's Self-Cultivation in English. No. 249. 

Peabody's The Piper. No. 263. 

Richards's High Tide. An Anthology. No. 256. 

For Colleges 

Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln. A Play. No. 268. 
HowELLs's A Modern Instance. No. 252. 
Lockwood's English Sonnets. No. 244. 
RiTTEN house's Tne Little Book of American Poets. No. 255. 
RrnENHousE's The Little Book of Modem Verse. No. 254. 
Rittenhouse's Second Book of Modem Verse. No. 267. 
Shepard's Shakespeare Questions. No. 246. 
Sheridan's The School for Scandal. No. 250. 
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Piers the Ploughmaa, 
No. 251. 



Houghton Mifflin Company 



1940 



FOR COURSES ON THE DRAMA 

DRAMATIC TECHNIQUE 

By George Pierce Baker, Harvard University. 

THE TUDOR DRAMA 

By C. F. Tucker Brooke, Yale University. 
An illuminating history of the development of English Drama dur- 
ing the Tudor Period, from 1485 to the close of the reign of Elizabeth. 

CHIEF CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS, First Series 

Edited by Thomas H. Dickinson, formerly of the University of 
Wisconsin. 

CHIEF CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS, Second Series 

Edited by Thomas H. Dickinson. 

This book supplements the First Series by making available in a 
companion volume plays which represent the later tendencies in the 
drama of Europe and America. 

CHIEF EUROPEAN DRAMATISTS 

Edited by Brander Matthews, Columbia University, Member 
of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 
This volume contains one typical play from each of the master 
dramatists of Europe, with the exception of the English writers. 

A STUDY OF THE DRAMA 

By Brander Matthews. 

Devoted mainly to an examination of the structural framework 
which the great dramatists of various epochs have given to their plays; 
it discusses only incidentally the psychology, the philosophy, and the 
poetry of these pieces. 

THE CHIEF ELIZABETHAN DRAMATISTS 

Edited by W. A. Neilson, President of Smith College, formerly 
Professor of English Literature in Harvard University. 

This volume presents typical examples of the work of the most 
important of Shakespeare's contemporaries, so that, taken with 
Shakespeare's own works, it affords a view of the development of the 
English drama through its most brilliant period. 

A HISTORY OF THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 

By Felix E. Schelling, University of Pennsylvania. 2 vols. 

SHAKESPEAREAN PLAYHOUSES 

By Joseph Quincy Adams, Cornell University. 
A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the Restor 
ation. Fully illustrated. 

SHAKESPEARE QUESTIONS 

By Odell Shepard, Trinity College. Riv. Lit. Series. No. 246. 

An outline for the study of the leading plays. ^ 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



PROBLEMS OF CONDUCT 

BY 
DURANT DRAKE 

Professor of Philosophy^ Vassar College 

An Introductory Survey of Ethics 

THE Boston Transcript says : *'It is the great 
merit of Professor Drake's book that it moves 
always in a concrete sphere of life as we daily 
live it. It never moralizes, it never lays down obiter 
dicta^ it simply talks over with us our personal prob- 
lems precisely as a keen, experienced, and always 
sympathetic friend might do. Through and through 
scientific and scholarly, it is never academic in 
method and matter." 



PROBLEMS OF RELIGION 

BY 
DURANT DRAKE 

THIS book, like Professor Drake's Problems 
of Conduct, represents a course of lectures 
given for several years to undergraduates of 
Wesleyan University. Their aim is to give a rapid 
survey of the field, such that the man who is confused 
by the chaos of opinions on these matters, and him- 
self but little able to judge between conflicting 
statements, may here get his bearings and see his 
way to stable belief and energetic action. 



HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



FOR COLLEGE LITERATURE 
COURSES 

HISTORY AND CRITICISM 

BoTTA — Handbook of Universal Literature. 

Grumbine — Stories from Browning. 

HiNCHMAN AND GuMMERE — Lives of Great Englist Writefs ffom 

Chaucer to Browning. 
Matthews — A Study of Versification. 
Maynadier — The Arthur of the Fngttsfi Poets* 
Perry— A Study of Prose Fiction. 
Perry— A Study of Poetry. 
Root — The Poetry of Chaucer. 
SiMONDS — A Student's History of English Literature. 
Simon DS — A Student's History of American Literature* 
Baker — Dramatic Technique. 
Brooke — The Tudor Drama. 
Matthews — A Study of the Drama* 
ScHELLiNG — A History of the Elizabethan Drama. 2 vols. 



ANTHOLOGIES 

POETRY 
Holt — Leading English Poets from Chaucer to Browning. 
Neilson and Webster — The Chief British Poets of the Four* 

tcenA and Fifteenth Centuries. 
Page — Tlie Chief American Poets. 
Weston — The Chief Middle English Poets* 

PROSE 

Alden — Readings in English Prose of the Eighteenth Century* 

Alden — Readings in English Prose of the Nineteenth Century* 
Part I; Part II; Complete. 

Foerster — The Chief American Prose "Writers. 

THE DRAMA 
Dickinson — Chief Contemporary Dramatists, First Series* 
Dickinson — Chief Contemporary Dramatists, Second Series* 
Matthews — Chief European Dramatists. 

Neilson — The Chief Elizabethan Dramatists (except Shake- 
speare) to the Close of the Theatres. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1S25 



HOW TO STUDY 
AND 

TEACHING HOW TO STUD) 

By 
F. M. McMURRY 

Professor of Elementary Education, Teachers College 
Columbia University. 

Every teacher, student, and parent should read this 
book, — perhaps the most fundamentally important 
educational book that has recently appeared. 

Some of the questions which are fully and help* 
fully answered in the book: 

Why young people have not been learning to study 
effectively. 

The changes necessary to be made in the schools in 
order that they may learn to study properly. 

How the large amount of waste in home study can 
be prevented. 

How adults should study. 

To what extent children have the native capacity and 
experience necessary for fruitful study. 

What can be done towards teaching even the young» 
est children to form the right habits of study. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



For College Classes 

PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS 

Cushman's A Beginner's History of Philosophy 

Drake's Problems of Conduct 

Drake's Problems of Religion 

Libby's An Introduction to the History of Science 

Rand's The Modern Classical Philosophers 

Rand's The Classical Moralists 

Sellars's Essentials of Logic 

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 

Averill's Psychology for Normal Schools 

Bobbitt's The. Curriculum 

Charters's Teaching the Common Branches 

Cubberley's The History of Education 

Cubberley's Readings in the History of Education 

Cubberley's Rural Life and Education 

Cubberley's Public Education in the United States 

Dooley's Principles and Methods of Industrial Education 

Earhart's Types of Teaching 

Edman's Human Traits and Their Social Significance 

Freeman's Experimental Education 

Freeman's How Children Learn 

Freeman's The Psychology of the Common Branches 

Inglis's Principles of Secondary Education 

Kirkpatrick's The Individual in the Making 

Langfeld and Allport's Elementary Laboratory Course in 

Psychology 
Leake's Industrial Education: Its Problems, Methods, and Dan- 
gers 
Leake's Means and Methods of Agricultural Education 
McMurry's (C. A.) Conflicting Principles in Teaching 

McMurry's (F. M.) How to Study 

Nolan's Teaching of Agriculture 

O'Shea's Social Development and Education 

Rand's The Classical Psychologists 

Ruediger's The Principles of Education 

Smith's An Introduction to Educational Sociology 

Snedden's Problems of Educational Readjustment 

Snedden's Problems of Secondary Education 

Terman's The Hygiene of the School Child 

Thomas's Training for Effective Study 

Tyler's Growth and Education 

Waddle's An Introduction to Child Psychology 

Warren's Human Psychology 

Wilson's Motivation of School Work 

Woodley's The Profession of Teaching 



HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1942 



r.rc-liJ-^ 



L/CV/ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

ill • 

020 312 310 3 



